TABS - Life With The Penguins: On The Fifth Day
by Joshpro8423
Summary: Two months after the reality-bending adventure, the place seemed to have gotten quieter, too quiet. But when two mysterious animals show up with a thirst for vengeance, the team will have to set off to find the only ones who can help them lift a curse set upon two fellow penguins. Will they be able to find the cure them before it's too late?
1. Introduction

_**Life With The Penguins:  
On The Fifth Day**_

_No penguin left behind_

**Some Info:**  
Yeah! And the series lives on! Anyway, this is the fifth but not final (97 percent chance that there will never be a final) story. Includes special guests, well sorta, Manfredi and Johnson, plus, some that you've heard before but never seen or even know their names! Please read the last four FIRST before you read this! It will make more sense if you do.

**Summary:**  
Two months after the reality-bending adventure, the place seemed to have gotten quieter, too quiet. But when two mysterious animals show up with a thirst for vengeance, the team will have to set off to find the only ones who can help them lift a curse set upon two fellow penguins. Will they be able to find the cure them before it's too late? Read on to find out!

**Disclaimer:**  
I do not own _The Penguins of Madagascar_. It belongs to _Tom McGrath_, _Eric Daniels_, _Dreamworks Animation_ and _Nickelodeon_. I only own my own OCs (i.e. Josh Everett, Nick Everett, etc.)

_A/N: Welcome everybody to part 5 of the Life With The Penguins Series! I really have enjoyed this series and can tell it's my favourite one! So, I hope you all enjoy this magical chapter!_

**Introduction:**  
_Unwelcomed Enemy_

Today seemed like another normal day, since about two months ago, we had that crazy adventure that only I remember, in the alternate fate of this dimension. We never really realised how important the two of us were till that day. When Parker prevented us from ever arriving in this dimension, it changed a lot, so I'm pretty happy that we are here, knowing that everything was better this way.

Since that day, we hope everyday that nothing like that would happen again, because now, we were part of their family. On the bright side, Parker is trapped in time and Liv is now living with her cousin, Marlene, in her habitat, after we saved her from Malcom X. Who knew Liv was Marlene's cousin, except Liv herself of course. It was just a plain crazy Christmas I can say that.

Anywho, today was exceptionally boring, after our usual training. It was a Monday, which was usually Funday, but you know Skipper, training is more important. But today, even Skipper didn't know what to do. He just seemed to run out of training exercises to do, or just got tired of it. So, he decided to give us the rest of the day off.

We all did whatever we wanted for the rest of the day. Private, Emmy and Amy were watching the Lunacorns, Skipper was telling Chris some of his life stories, Carl and Brandon were with their dad making some homemade explosives, Kowalski was busy inventing in the lab, while Nick and Gem were having a nap. Me, I was just about to head over to the lemurs to meet up with Ernie and Julien.

"Uh guys? I'm just gonna go over to the lemurs habitat, alright?" Skipper nodded with losing eye contact with his son. Why was I heading to the lemurs habitat? Yeah, of course my best friend Ernie is there, but it was also because every Monday we do something we had planned called Music Monday. We got a whole week of it, and we were loving it.

On Tuesday, we have Thriller Tuesday, where we watch some horror movies we found in Alice's office (Never knew she had any). Next we have War-filled Wednesday, where we have a paintball war against the whole zoo (Skipper says it was a great idea). Then we have Trivia Thursday, Kowalski's favorite, where we play trivia till someone starts screaming. The rest are Free-running Friday, Role-play Saturday (It just rhymed) and Sweet and Sour Sunday.

"What up homies!" I yelled as I entered the lemur habitat. "Really? You want to act hip today?" asked Ernie, who was replacing a broken string on Julien's banjo. "What? Too much?" I asked as I sat beside him. "Nope, just...I don't know..." He continued on tuning the banjo, looking just as bored as me. Just as I was about to say something, a small, brown and furry figure randomly jumped at me.

"Hi Josh!" yelled the figure. "Gah! Mort!? What was that for you little furball..." I said. I peeled him off my right flipper and rubbed his head. "Why don't you go and annoy Julien instead, ok?" He nodded and did as I asked, cause soon after he left, we heard Julien kick him off into the distance. "Nice one..." Ernie commented, giving me a fist pound, which I returned.

All of a sudden, we heard yelling, coming from the penguin HQ. "That's Skipper! Come on, let's see what's going on!" Ernie and I immediately took off to the secret passage that led from the lemur habitat to the HQ, moving quickly and quietly. We then slowly opened the 'Private's 1st Prize' door to see two unknown penguins behind it. It front of them was the rest of the team.

"It's over Skipper! Tell us where those two hooligans are or else!" they both yelled. By the sound of those voices, the penguins were female. The other penguin, on our left, had a corked bottle of who-knows-what hidden behind her in her left flipper. It seemed to have a magical purplish-green glow to it. "I swear to you, they're dead!" Skipper yelled back.

"You don't want to tell us?! Fine! You asked for it!" Full of anger, the penguin holding the bottle threw it at Skipper, which Kowalski blocked. The liquid splashed on them both, but the glass cut Kowalski more than the rest. Ernie and I then tackled the two, me taking the one on our right, Ernie taking the left. The others joined in the tackle, but as soon as they started, they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Blast! They've escaped! Darn smoke bombs..." I griped. When the smoke cleared, the two that were hit by the liquid were on the floor, writhing in pain and groaning in an unearthly manner. There was also some smoke that was being emitted from their now wet, purplish-green glowing feathers. "Oh my fishy herring! Get that liquid off them!" I yelled.

"Urgh! Everything...hurts...so...bad! Argh!" yelled Skipper. We didn't know what to do. Rico regurgitated a bucket of water and splashed the two. The liquid ran off, but they were still in pain. "What do we do! What do we do!" Private and Gem kept saying as they panicked around. The kids seemed to all be hiding in their room, as they peeking at the current scene.

"Calm down will you!" Nick yelled at the panicky penguins. "What happened just now!?" I asked. Nick explained that the two penguins from before just randomly barged in, demanding for Manfredi and Johnson. "What is it?" Private, who finally calmed down, asked Ernie, who was in deep thought. "I don't know, but what they did out there seemed like...black magic or something..." he said, his paw on his chin.

At this time, the two had passed out from all the pain. "Come to think of it, it did seem like it..." I tried thinking of how we can fix this. "Uh, if this is possibly black magic...then we need to ask Darla..." I suggested. Private looked at me confused. "Black magic? Are you serious? Now's not the time to be jumping to conclusions!" I then told Nick to go and get Darla.

Some of the kids came out of the room. "Will they be alright?" asked a sobbing Emmy. "I hope they will..." I assured. I then helped Rico mop away the liquid that was now all over the HQ floor. It smelt horrible, like rotten fish mixed with sewer sludge, and worst of all, the smell hasn't gone away yet, even when we finished mopping and clearing up the broken glass.

Just as we finished, Nick and Darla dropped in. "What kind of help do y'all need?" she asked. We pointed at the two unconscious penguins and she went and checked them. "Urgh, what is that stuff?" she commented as she took a whiff of the air around the two. Rico offered her a clothes peg and a gas mask, and ironically she took the gas mask.

She put it on and continued finding out what had caused the two to feel so much pain. The kids were all sobbing as they peeked out the room, except Emmy and Chris, who were outside with us. "Good golly, this is the work of black magic alright, but it's a very advanced kind compared to what I do..." she finally said after ten minutes of checking...whatever it is that she was checking for.

"So, can you help them?" asked Gem. As she said that, Nick, Ernie, Rico and I were helping in carrying the fallen penguins into the bunks. Darla shook her head. "I am not skilled enough to tackle this level of black magic, but I know a few who may be able to help..." she suggested. "Who?" She gave a small dramatic pause before answering. "Manfredi and Johnson of course..."

I choked in disbelief while the rest just yelled 'WHAT!' "Um, if you didn't know, they had already...moved on..." I replied, clearing my throat. That's when we heard Skipper shift. _"They're not...dead..."_ he whispered in a frail voice. "Skipper!" Private ran to his leader. "Are you alright!? Please tell me you're alright!" he asked as he hugged him.

Chris did the same, the hugging him and all. _"They're...not dead..."_ he whispered again, a bit louder this time. "What?" Nick asked, thinking she might have heard wrong. _"I said...they're not dead..."_ He groaned a bit, holding his head. "What do you mean they're not dead? They're...alive?" I asked. He nodded weakly. "Manfredi and Johnson alive!?" grunted Rico.

"Well, where they are!?" Gem and I asked instantly. _"Remember I said...that in Denmark...I got arrested?" _he said, this time in a soft voice rather than a whisper. We nodded. _"Well...they got...caught too. I...managed to escape...with their help. They're...still there...I'm sure of it...since we all...got a life sentence..."_ he said. "Where?" I then asked. _"In the most...secure level...of the Danish Penitentiary..."_

_A/N: Manfredi and Johnson are alive! Well, you know if you read part 4's epilogue, but who can help us get there? Since Skipper can't bring us there, there is only one last person who could. R&R if you know who it is!_


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N: Ok, this is the next chapter of the fifth part of my series and it has really gotten better since the last few stories! Part 3 is still a filler and it will take me the longest to write due to the sixth degree of writer's block that is on it, but I really hope that will be updated soon, if I can. Two things left to say is that I will probably try to re-write part 1, just to improve the storyline. I'll get to that when I can. Also, a shout-out to the awesome fanfictioner, Cudabear, for his Sun Chronicles stories. I am currently reading part 2 of that and I really liked it. Thanks!_

**Chapter 1:**  
_Headed Back Home_

With the info given to us by a pain-filled Skipper, we: Private, Rico, Nick, Ernie and I, headed over to the one person we know who is currently fit enough to follow us on this...uh...rescue mission at the Danish Penitentiary in Copenhagen, Denmark. We arrived at the Hoboken Zoo, and we went straight to the habitat in the center.

"Hans! We need your help!" I called. Hans appeared from the top of the tall rock in the center of the pool. "Help? What kind of help?" he asked. "We need you to take us to Denmark..." I said. Then, he jumped off the rock, doing a double front-flip and landing in front of us. "Why do you need me? Skipper knows his way around Denmark too. Why not ask him?"

"Because...he's not well. And you are the only other person I know who can help us around Denmark..." Hans raised a non-existent eyebrow. "Not well? In what way not well?" I looked at the rest and they nodded. "Well, you see...I'm not sure if you'll believe this but...Skipper's been...cursed...with black...magic..." I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "Really? By who?" he asked, sounding concerned and curious.

"That's...a good question. Uh...any of you know who?" Then, Rico stepped forward. "Chinstrap...Sisters..." he grunted. Hans' eyes grew big. "The Chinstrap Sisters!? You're joking, right?!" he asked laughing nervously. Rico just shook his head. "You know them?" Nick asked. "Everybody knows them, well, all animals know them. They are the devious duo who cause havoc with black magic and dark arts..."

"So, you believe us?" asked Ernie. Hans nodded. "I've seen them before...uh...indirectly. You see, before when I was in Skippah's team, they were exploring a cave in Antarctica during a homecoming. I didn't follow, but when they came back to our HQ in the Supermax Zoo, Manfredi showed me some pictures he took with them. One had red eyes and the other had green eyes. I was very certain that they were the Chinstrap Sisters that I warned him not to be with her any longer..."

Hans was interrupted by Private. "Wait, Manfredi...fell for one of them?" Hans nodded. "She goes by the name of Jade Seviera. She's the one with green eyes. Her sister is Scarlet Seviera. Those two said to Manfredi that they lived in that cave, which was surprising, as most penguins in the Antarctic, based on what Skippah told me, live in igloos quite near the coast..."

"Swell. Anyway, before you start changing the subject again, can you help us? Or better yet, help your pal Skipper?" Hans thought for a moment at my preposition. "Sure. Anything for my palsy-walsy, especially if it involves the Chinstrap Sisters..." he replied. We all knew that if we were to get to this Danish Penitentiary, then we need Hans to take us there.

We all gathered into the coup and proceeded to drive to the airport in New York. It was a long, tedious drive, avoiding cars, people, other animals and just about anything that was in the way, but nonetheless, it was interesting. Hans explained to us all he knew about the sisters as well as how we can get to the Danish Penitentiary when we arrive.

We got to the airport and Private looked out for a plane going to Copenhagen. "Over there!" Private said to us as he pointed in the direction of a plane called the Danish Airlines. We drove towards that plane, being careful not to be seen by any human. We parked the car at a desolate area and snuck in by hiding in the luggage they were loading into the plane.

They finally managed to load all the luggage in, us included, and we waited for a few minutes before we climbed out of the bags. "(Inhales loudly)...I CAN BREATH AGAIN!" exclaimed Ernie as he climbed out of the extremely packed roller bag he was in. "I knew I should have chosen the golf bag!" he groused. Rico popped out of a golf bag, Nick and I from another roller bag and Private and Hans from a huge haversack.

"That's a good look on you guys..." Nick laughed. Hans and Private looked up to find a bra on their heads. They took it off and laughed, embarrassed. "So, how long will this take?" asked Private. "I'd say about 5 hours, but Hans knows better..." We then shifted our gaze over to him. "Well, planes from New York take about 7 and a half hours to get to Denmark, since that was how long I had to stay in here when I came to New York..." he explained. We sighed. It's gonna be LONG trip.

Back at HQ, the two are still unconscious and now, Marlene, Liv and Ash were there. Marlene couldn't do anything but cry over the practically lifeless mass of feathers by the name of Skipper. Liv was watching her cousin cry her eyes out and it had already taken its toll on her, forcing her eyes to water and leak. Doris however, took a while to get in there; she had to use another entrance through the sewers to get in so she could be with Kowalski.

The two were hooked up to some life-support machines that Ash and Gem managed to find in Kowalski lab. The beeps of the machines just echoed through the HQ, giving a somewhat eerie and creepy ambience. All the kids were scared stiff, and couldn't do much other than sulk in their room, crying, hoping their uncles were alright. Chris and Emmy never left their dads, but was now joined by their siblings, Penny and Kate.

The entire HQ was enveloped in nothing else other than pure sadness mixed with grief, anxiety, anger and even denial. None of them wanted to believe they were dead, not yet at least. They would not be able to bare the job of burying them and have Alice wonder what happened to two of her penguins. In fact, Alice hadn't been around for quite a while, since it was nearing the winter season.

A glint of hope filled the room when Marlene swore she felt Skipper's warm but unmoving flipper flinch in her grip. "S-Skipper?" After asking that question, she waited for a response. One minute passed, two minutes, but then, she heard it. A sigh from Skipper signaled he was still alive. Kowalski did the same too, except that he actually shifted in his bunk.

He, on the other hand, was not as lucky as Skipper. When they threw the bottle, his immediate response was to block it, but because of that, he had some cuts from the shattered glass. The strange liquid made it worse; they weren't sure if there was an infection on any of them or not. He is just lucky there was none, after 3 hours past the time we left.

So, now, he was just lying there, his flipper in Doris', wrapped skillfully in a ton of reddened bandages. It was still pretty lucky that Ash was a vet, back in our dimension. It had been very useful to have someone who had a good amount of knowledge in first aid. She has been marked by Skipper as 'The Team's Medic', even through she wasn't exactly a part of Skipper's team.

Actually, we had our own team. Just the five of us, me, Nick, Ernie, Gem and Ash. It was like Skipper's second team. He was still our superior, to be very accurate, but I lead that team. I still needed help from Skipper on being a leader, but we weren't as active as his team. We're just like a backup force that Skipper needed constantly, especially now.

We all just hope that he will be alright. The only thing we could do now was to wait to get to Denmark, find Manfredi and Johnson, that is if they're still alive, and try to find out how we could help them. It had already been 4 hours on the plane, and we haven't landed yet. Hans was right about the 7 and a half hours, I guess. We just hope, and pray, that we can save them.

_A/N: Well, that went swell? So, I have said most of what I wanted to say already, except one…no, two things. First, thanks to all reviewers! Now, R&R to find out what's next, but it may be delayed due to reasons I put in chapter 5 of The Odds And Ends Of Friendship…_


	3. Chapter 2

_A/N: Welcome back! Sorry for the mix-up last chapter; I was in a hurry to go out, like right now. Well, hope you all enjoy this chapter as I managed to squeeze this out from the time I had been using to write an original story. Hope you all understand that the chapters will be coming in slow but I'll try to post at least one a week. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 2:**  
_The Great Danish Rescue_

Morning came to Central Park Zoo pretty fast, like someone had skipped time. Most of the animals were still asleep, but as the sun slowly creeped its way through the skyline, some animals aren't even in their own habitats. Ash, Marlene and Liv still hadn't left the two unconscious birds and instead fallen asleep beside them.

Marlene was the first to wake up, who then proceeded to wake the rest up. The two unconscious penguins were still, well, unconscious, nonetheless. Most of Kowalski's cuts have healed now, which was an upside. The kids were starting to awake as well. Gem was the only other fit, adult penguin left, besides Emmy, who was a young adult.

"What are we gonna do about opening time? I mean, won't Alice notice that about six penguins are missing?" asked Liv. Gem just shook her head.

"No. Alice doesn't really care how many penguins are missing. She doesn't even know how many penguins she has now, so she wouldn't care less..." she answered with an air of confidence.

"I think we should head back to our own habitats right now. We don't want Alice to get suspicious that her otters are missing..." said Marlene. The two otters then waved goodbye and made their way up the fishbowl entrance and back to their habitat.

"So, what are we going to do for now?" asked Emmy. Gem though for a bit. What are they gonna do? Skipper and Kowalski were in some kind of mini-coma, Josh and Nick were gone as well as Rico and Private.

"Well, we should continue normal routines for now, just so Alice keeps off our tails..." she replied. She hadn't noticed that her eyes had drifted over to the two birds lying in the bunks.

"I'll stay here and take care of them. I don't think Alice will mind one of her badgers are missing. And besides, who know when they'll wake up..." Ash offered. Gem nodded to her step-sister as she shifted her gaze away from the two.

"How long more?" asked Private. We had been in the plane for a few hours, playing the waiting game. This was around the hundredth time Private asked this question, which brings to thought of how bored he was. I then regurgitated a small wristwatch.

"Uh, just a few more minutes Private. Around 15 minutes to be exact..." I answered. I swallowed back the watch and we continued waiting for the plane to land. I was extremely bored too, doing nothing more than fiddling with the zipper of the bag I was sitting on.

"Uh, Hans? How far is the penitentiary from the airport?" asked Nick. Hans turned away from the small window on the trapdoor of the plane. He hasn't done anything else throughout the few hours other than staring down that window from where he laid. He seemed pretty concerned that he was actually going back to Denmark after what had happened to him and Skipper in the past.

"I'm not really sure. It's been a while since I've been here. I mean, I got...banished, remember?" he replied, hesitating at the last sentence. Nick nodded as she laid back on the mountain of luggage she sat on. Silence filled the space we all sat in, well, besides the roar of the plane's engines. It was actually pretty soothing.

A few minutes later, we heard Hans yell, "Hold on! I think were about to land!" We all grabbed on to the sides of the plane, just in time to anticipate the jump we get when the plane touched down. When it first hit the ground, we were launched a few inches up before landing back on the whole mess of luggage.

"Welcome to Copenhagen everyone..." Hans said with a small laugh. We all headed over to where the trapdoor was and Hans opened it as carefully as he could. The plane was still moving, so we had to wait for the plane to stop just to make sure we don't get stuck in the middle of the runway. After what seemed like forever, the plane halted to a stop.

"Let's go..." We followed after Hans and climbed down the landing gear of the plane, where we then skillfully avoided the patrolling guards and other humans. We exited the airport through where vehicles would usually enter through but then stopped dead in our tracks just outside it.

"Uh, which way is the penitentiary?" asked Private. Hans scratched the back of his head. We could understand that he wouldn't be able to remember, since he hasn't been there since forever.

"Uh, I can't remember..." he simply answered. We all looked in the direction of the airport. "I know! We could get a map from the airport!" he suggested, gesturing back to the airport. We all nodded and made our way inside.

Third Person POV:  
"It worked sis..." said a female voice as two figures watched six other figures make their way into the airport. "They're after Manfredi and Johnson, just as planned..." she added.

The other figure smirked. "I knew they weren't dead. Well, let's just wait for them to get separated and finish what we started..." she annouced in a dark way.

"What about Skipper and that other penguin we cursed?" The second figure shifted her red eyes to her sister with a burning glare. The green eyed figure just flinched and kept quiet.

"They were in the way. Besides, that Skipper fellow was the reason why your little naive boyfriend tried to steal our talisman..." She then gestured to a small, brown and ancient-looking talisman around her neck. It resembled the shape of the sun and moon merged together and it had 12 small black gems arranged in a circle in the center. There was a missing spot in the center of the talismen.

She held it tightly in her flipper, a small gesture to show its great importance. "So, he dies? Along with that tall one that wasn't involved in this before now?" the green eyed figure finally said. Her sister just nodded, which made her feel a bit uncomfortable. Then, they noticed the six figures from before exit the building, one of the holding what looked like a map.

"Come on..." the red eyed figured said before they continued pursuing the group.

Normal POV (Josh's POV):  
"Ok, by the looks of this map, the penitentiary is north-east from here, well, if Hans' translations are right..." I said as we headed off in the penitentiary's direction. The words on the map were all in Danish, and Hans could only translate so much as he hasn't spoken Danish in forever. To be honest, he hasn't done anything Danish in forever.

"I assure you my translation is correct. Fængselsvæsen means penitentiary in Danish..." Hans affirmed. Keeping trust in him as he was the only one we knew who could translate these words, we followed the map until we stumbled upon a big, heavily secured building.

We stood in awe as we gazed upon the gigantic structure. It seemed to be about two or three stories high and the size of two football fields. The walls surrounding it were about ten feet high and had barbed wires lining the top of it. Two massive gates served as protection from any escapees, even animal ones. Behind those gates stood some intimidating Danish guards, armed with high voltage tazer guns and some shotguns.

"There is no way to get in there without making a scene. There's gotta be..." Nick was cut off by the sound of stone grinding on stone. We turned to see Hans pushing away a stone covering the wall behind some bushes. "Where'd that come from?" she asked.

"I had made it the time I tried to get Skipper out. Apparently, I failed, but it should still lead to the basement of the whole penitentiary..." Hans explained as he dusted his wings. The hole behind it was small and dark but big enough for a penguin or puffin to fit through. It was angled slightly downwards, pointing itself to where the penitentiary's basement may possibly be.

"Wait, how are you sure that they didn't already block this off at the other end or maybe put some extra surveillance or something?" Ernie countered. The puffin just gave a look and gazed down the hole.

"Can't be. I still see the light of the basement from here. Plus, they didn't know where I had entered from, just where I exited from..." He gestured to the front gates, showing that he escaped through the main entrance. He then started to enter the small crawlspace. "Are you guys coming or not?" he asked. We nodded and followed him in.

_A/N: How was it? I took a while to write this in my free time as it has been occupied by the reason already mentioned. Oh, and the Truth Or Dare Games will come really slowly as I want to make it completely random and fun to read. R&R to support the team in their mission!_


	4. Chapter 3

_A/N: And we are back with another chapter of On The Fifth Day! If you all hadn't re-read last chapter, I have made a few corrections in the description of a certain talisman. Well, here, you will some of Skipper's past where I will add to a story I am working on. More details will be added at the bottom. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 3:**  
_Meeting The Living Ghosts_

He felt weak. He couldn't stand up, nor could he even sit up. He tried to open his eyes but nothing would respond. It was like his spiritual self was alive but not his physical self. He tried to open his beak, but no words came out. All he could see was an agonizing flashback of the past.

Flashback POV (First Person POV):  
"Are you sure we should be helping her with this? I mean, if she couldn't get it herself, what makes you think we can?" I asked as we entered a strange underground temple structure. It was massive, almost as big as the Sphinx in Egypt itself. The material it was made of seemed to be gold, or some other shiny yellow material. Encrusted in some of them were red crystals that were encircled by some small black ones.

"Sure we can, right Johnson?" Manfredi replied as we entered the darkness of the interior of the temple. Armed only with a single torch we got from the cave it was in, we advanced with caution. "See, it's right there. Easy peasy..."

We all made it to the central room, which was massive in itself. A strange red light shone upon a pedestal in the center of the gargantuan room. "Hurry up, before something bad happens. I can feel it in my gut..." I said. Manfredi looked at me with a face that said he knew what he was doing.

"Manfredi, I really think we shouldn't do this. I know you like her like her, but it doesn't mean you need to go to extremes like this..." Johnson explained in a timid voice. He was holding onto the torch like it was a weapon, and every few sounds that echoed the giant room, he would jump.

"Love makes you do crazy things Johnson. Now just watch my back while I get that, alright?" Johnson nodded gingerly and turned to face the entrance. I did the same, but every few seconds or so, I would turn to Manfredi. Every second he got closer, the light seemed it intensify.

"Got it!" yelled Manfredi, showing off a small, brown talismen. It seemed to have the same design as the bricks the place was made with; a red crystal in the center encircled by some small black ones. Then, the whole place started to shake like an earthquake was occurring. "Oh snap, we gotta get out of here!" was all Manfredi could say before I saw a huge chunk of ceiling fall on him.

Normal POV (Josh's POV):  
He shot open his eyes, breathing heavily. His vision was cloudy, but he could make out a yellow-orange face beside him as he turned to look at his right. He could see another figure talking to the yellow-orange figure, but their speech was muffled to him.

_"Skipper's awake...looks like...nightmare...hope...alright..."_ was all he could make out. He heard himself moan and soon, his vision cleared and his hearing returned. "Skipper, are you alright? Can you hear me?" It was Ash. He gave a small, noticeable nod to signal that he could hear her. Then, a bright light entered both his eyes for a few seconds, then disappeared.

"His eye responses are a bit slow, but that's not too much of a problem..." Then, the sound of someone shifting in their bunk made him look over his shoulder. Kowalski was in Nick's bunk, still unconscious and covered in bandages like a mummy. "I guess he's alright..." said Ash. A dizzy spell then shrouded him and he fell back into unconsciousness.

"Wow, this place is crazy..." I said. The basement of the penitentiary was huge, looking almost bigger than the penitentiary itself. "So, how are going to get to them?" I asked. Hans tapped his beak and looked around the place for any way we could use to sneak around the guards.

"Last time I just evaded the guards, but I think the air vents will help us more..." Hans suggested, pointing at the air ducts on the wall above us.

"Right, let's go..." I said. We all then formed a penguin tower, with the exception of a puffin and a lemur, to open an entrance to the air vents. We all then climbed it and followed Hans through the maze of vents.

A few minutes later, we stopped right before a grate and gathered round. _"This is the control room. Someone needs to be in there so they don't see us enter..."_ He pointed a wing at the officers watching the screens. There were about three officers in there, which should be no problem for us.

We nodded and quietly removed the grate. Then, we jumped down, landing on the officers and knocking them out. "Great teamwork guys..." I commented.

"Ok, Hans, Nick and Rico, stay here and watch the cameras. Make sure we don't get discovered too soon. Ernie and Private, follow me to where Manfredi and Johnson should be..." Rico then regurgitated some walkie talkies. "Thanks..."

I gave Ernie some rope and he climb, using his awesome lemur climbing skills with some parkour, and made it back to the vent. He let the rope down to allow Private and I to climb up.

"We'll radio in if we need any help. Keep an eye on those monitors..." I said before the three of us proceeded through the crawl space.

After following dozens of directions give to us by Hans in the control room, we managed to get to the right grate that led into a dark room. Through the darkness, I could make out two small figures sulking on the beds. "This must be it..." I whispered to myself.

Ernie and Private helped me lift the grate off, which seemed to attract the attention of the two below. Ernie got out the rope that was loosely slung around him and threw it into the black of the room; just enough for someone to go down but not get out. "Good luck..." Ernie said.

I then proceeded to climb down the rope where the two figure just stood beside it. When I got to the floor of it, I noticed they were around my height. "Ok guys, do you think you can hit the light switch in this room, over..." I said to the walkie talkie.

On command, the lights flickered on and momentarily blinded the two. When they came to, I could now see that they were penguins, the same species as the rest of us; Classified Penguins or Classic Penguins as Nick calls them.

The one on my left was around Kowalski's height, which I was at, and had a slightly spiked feather hairstyle and a small, stubby beak. He also had a light ocean blue colour to his eyes and his flippers were as long as Kowalski's.

The one on my right was big and slightly taller Rico. He had a pretty balanced shade of blue to his eye while his left eye was covered with an eyepatch. His right leg was missing and in its place was a small wooden peg leg. His flippers were broad and short and his beak was quite big.

"Are you two Manfredi and Johnson?" I quickly asked. To my relief, they nodded. They looked slightly confused on who I was so, I then introduced myself. "Great. I'm First Sergeant Josh of Captain Jackson's team, or more familiar to you too as Skipper's team..."

The two glanced at each other before holding out a flipper each. "Master Sergeant Williamson, or Manfredi as you please..." said the one on my right as I shook his flipper.

"Second Lieutenant O'Nelly, Johnson O'Nelly..." replied the one on my left as I shook his flipper.

"So, are you here to get us out?" asked Manfredi. I nodded and gazed up the rope, signaling them to climb it. "Great. Johnson, you go first..." With that, we climbed back up to the vents, Johnson first, then me and Manfredi.

"Need help?" I asked as Manfredi struggled to climb the rope. I put out a flipper and he took it. I then pulled him up into the vent.

"Thanks..." he replied. Then, their gaze landed on Private. "Riley! Long time no see!" he said before giving him a hug.

"You too Manfredi..." he replied. He then took Johnson's hug as well. "We thought you two were dead..." Private added.

"Who told you that?" asked Johnson.

"Skipper did. Anyway, it's good to see you again. Come on, I bet Rico will be happy to see you two again!" he said before we headed back down to the control room.

_A/N: Ok, now we met Skipper's old team! I tried to make them look like the real ones from the episode "The Penguin Who Loved Me" just so they would be easier to visualize. Plus, they are no longer considered OCs (Original Characters), but ECs (Existing Characters)._

_About the story, the whole thing will happen during the four year gap between parts 3 and 4 of the LWTPS. So, I need a few OCs that I will use later to add up to Skipper's platoon in the Penguin Academy. I already have one by Ivy000, so thanks for that. I guess about 8 more OCs for one platoon._

_It will come in three parts but its one story. There's the Childhood chapters (Yahoo!), Academy chapters and the Denmark chapters. I am in the midst of figuring out the intro before the first childhood chapter. I hope to post it soon, so any ideas for events that happened (including the ones mentioned in the show) will be helpful._


	5. Chapter 4

_A/N: We are back again with another chapter of the LWTPS and we will now continue with the team's adventure of magical madness. Sorry, I feel so random today, but that's not the point. Thanks to all the reviewers of the story so far and you are awesome. A little note, I read some of your stories and they are pretty good. Here's some others you may enjoy…_

_Cudabear – The Sun Chronicles and Death in the Zoo_

_Rookie70Penguin – The Perfect Three and The Perfect Tragedy_

_GrandOldPenguin – East of Nowhere, Beyond DNA and A Skilene-Filled September_

_If you want more suggestions, please tell me via review or PM. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 4:  
**_Family Reunion_

Rico was busy watching the monitor screen along with Hans and Nick. They felt a little bored waiting in the control room for the guys to come back. The three guards they knocked out were now conscious again, and are trying to get themselves untied as they sit bound together and gagged at the other end of the room.

"Guys!" a voice from above called out. The three jerked their heads towards the air vent entrance to see the face of Ernie. "Guess who's with us..." he continued.

"Just drop the rope..." Nick ordered. Ernie sighed in defeat and let the rope down. The three then went over to climb up to us, starting with Hans, then Rico and Nick.

"You're no fun..." Ernie said as the three got into the air vent. Nick just stuck her tongue out and made a face at him. "Come on, they're already at the basement..." added Ernie. They then proceeded down the air vents to the basement.

Rico was the first to pop his head out of the air vent. A huge grin plastered itself on his face as his eyes landed on two very familiar faces. "Manfredi! Johnson!" he wheezed as he ran over to give them a great man hug.

"Rico my old friend!" said Manfredi as Rico actually lifted him in the air in a hug. "Wow, you're getting strong man! You can finally carry me!" Manfredi joked.

Rico quickly detached from the previous hug and gave Johnson one as well. _"It's...good to see you...too...Rico!"_ greeted Johnson as he got strangled by the penguin's grip. _"Can't...breathe...Rico..."_ he stammered. Rico quickly let go upon hearing this.

"Heh heh. Sorry..." Rico apologized. Then, after everyone else, Hans popped out from the air vent.

"What did I miss?" he asked. Manfredi and Johnson instantly jerked their heads to the sound of the familiar voice.

"You!" yelled Johnson full of rage. "Traitor!" Manfredi continued as they zoomed towards him, ready to pummel him into the ground. Hans held up his wings to try to protect his face.

"WHOA! Hold on guys!" I yelled as I got between the three. Hans sighed in relief. "Nobody is pummeling anyone today, not even Hans..." I continued. The two scowled at Hans and looked back at me.

"But he's the reason why we're here in the first place!" Manfredi countered. This is gonna take a while. "Plus, he's also the one who made Skipper infamous here!" he added. Johnson just gave Hans a death glare from where he stood.

I gave them a death glare as well. "He's also the one who came back here after getting banished and repenting a few years after I came and helped you get out of there right now!" I quickly countered. "And if you three can't get along, then Skipper and Kowalski may not have long..."

Manfredi and Johnson stood down and looked at me like I grew a new head. "What are you talking about? What about Skipper and Kowalski?" asked Johnson, a bit more calmed down when I released this information.

"That's just it. We don't know what's wrong with them..." I answered hopelessly. "That's why we came to get you..." I continued, making their faces mold into confused masks.

"Chinstrap sisters..." Hans said out of the blue, making the two gasp. It was like they never wanted to hear those two words again. They both turned away from Hans and walked away.

"I knew they would come back..." Manfredi whispered under his breath. He stared down at his peg leg and sighed. "They want to recreate the ritual..." he finally spoke up, turning back to face us. "The ritual of..." Before he could finish, the alarms started blaring.

"Perfect! Now they know you two escaped!" yelled Ernie. We were about to climb back through the tunnel Hans made, but on the other side we saw guards looking down it.

The sound of footsteps then filled the air as they got louder by the second. "What now! We're trapped!" panicked Private. We looked around for a way out, but it was too late. The guards were finally in the basement.

"Well well well, if it isn't Manfredi and Johnson with their friends..." said one of the guards. This one looked more like the boss around there, as he wore a different uniform compared with what the rest wore. "And who's this? Well if it ain't the puffin we banished years ago..."

_"Hold onto me..."_ I whispered to the rest. They gave looks of confusion, but each put a wing, flipper or paw on me, eventually.

"What do you think your doing?" asked the previous guy. I gave him a cunning smile and regurgitated some remote device. I quickly pressed the button and all of us disappeared in a flash of light. "What! Darn it!" he yelled angrily before cursing something in Danish.

The 8 of us materialized in the ITD's arrival bay. "What was that?" asked Manfredi curiously as he and Johnson's eyes danced round the room.

"It's a 'home' button, made by Hans and I secretly, without telling Kowalski..." I said. "It's obviously for emergency purposes, and it's only one-way..." I added. We all got out and headed to the elevator opposite us to head up to HQ.

"We're back with some company..." Nick greeted as we arrived in the HQ. Skipper and Kowalski were still unconscious in the lowest bunks. Ash was changing the bandages on Kowalski while Gem was tending to the kids. Chris was sitting next to Skipper, asleep on a cider block that served as a stool. Emmy was doing just the same next to Kowalski.

"Guys! You're back!" greeted Ash before rushing to give us all a hug. She stopped and glanced at Manfredi and Johnson for a few seconds. "So you two are the ever famous Manfredi and Johnson..." She lifted a paw to give them a handshake. The two hesitated. "Come on, I won't bite..."

"Yeah, its ok guys..." added Private. He then stood beside her and held her at the hips. "She's my wife..." (A/N: Dang, that still sounds weird) Private continued, to Manfredi and Johnson's surprise.

"Wow. I thought you're afraid of badgers?" asked Johnson. Private just held Ash lovingly and smiled.

"Not anymore..." he said. Then, the kids gathered round Manfredi and Johnson. They awed at the kids; Manfredi picked up Carl and Brandon while Johnson picked up Amy. Carl and Brandon were showing off the homemade explosives that they and Rico were working on while Amy was playing with Johnson's beak and feathers.

"They seem to like you guys as much as their parents..." commented Gem. The two then put the kids down and they went over to hug their respective parents; Carl and Brandon hugged Rico and Gem while Amy hugged Private and Ash.

"Been a long time since we've seen kids..." complimented Johnson. "They look so much like you guys..."

"Ahem! I hate to intrude on you guys catching up with what has happened since you were gone, but we're supposed to be helping Skipper and Kowalski, remember?" I interjected, gesturing to the unconscious birds in the bunks.

"Oh, right..." Manfredi then approached Skipper while Johnson went over to Kowalski. "Skipper? Skipper?" Manfredi tried. Eventually, Skipper's eyes opened a crack, and a slight grin took over his face.

_"Manfredi..." _Skipper greeted with a faint voice. _"It's been a long time..." _He was obviously still weak from whatever they were cursed with, so Manfredi told him not to tire himself.

After just about 5 minutes, he concluded that this curse was very, very old and powerful. ""I just don't know what this is. The symptoms seem so familiar, but I can't figure out what it is..." he continued. "We need to find out more..."

He turned to face Johnson and nodded. He just nodded back, understanding what he meant. "Guys, we need to visit an old friend of mine..." He did some dramatic pause moment before adding, "In Brazil..." (A/N: Queue face close-up!)

_A/N: Ooh…Where do they need to go? Well, we're gonna find that out in the next chapter! Hope you all enjoyed and of course, R&R to support this series so far, because after this, part 6, will be pretty epic._


	6. Chapter 5

_A/N: We're back! Yay! This is gonna be an awesome chapter! I hope. Why am I speaking in half-sentences? Whatever, just here to thank the reviewers, and enjoy! Oh, I don't know why I keep forgetting to italics the POV changes._

**Chapter 5:**  
_Search For Answers_

_[14 hours since incident - 0453 hours New York Time]_

"BRAZIL!?" we all exclaimed in unison. Manfredi rolled his eyes and started to explain.

"I have a friend there, ok. He owns a secret library full of books about everything that exists in this world..." he explained. "If we wanna find out what happened to them, that will be the place to go to..." he finished.

We all looked at each other, unsure if to follow him to Brazil or not. Then, we made the decision, "We're in..." I said. "For Skipper and Kowalski..."

One by one, from Nick to Ernie, Hans, Private then Rico, they all agreed. "Well, it's settled then. We're going to Brazil..." he said. Private then raised up his flipper. "Yes Private?" he asked.

"Are we taking another plane?" Manfredi gave me a glance and I nodded.

"Yes Private. We're taking a plane..." With that, we said our goodbyes and left for the airport, again. The only good side is that the car has a 'return home' button, which puts it on auto pilot and sends it back to the zoo. Who do we thank? Dr. Blowhole.

As we left for the HQ's garage, we heard Kowalski whisper, _"Good luck"_ while Skipper whispered, _"and Godspeed..."_

_Third Person POV:_  
"Dang! We lost them!" yelled a red-eyed figure. The two were now in the Danish Penitentiary, trying to find the 6 figures they were following. "We were so close!" she yelled as she punched the wall.

"Hey you! What are you doing here!" a voice behind them said. They whipped around to meet the eyes of one of the guards from before. "This is a restricted area! You can't..." Before he could finish, the red-eyed figure muttered some Latin words and he just fell silent.

"Perfect. Now, tell me where they went..." she asked the guard who was now under her control. He just looked at her blankly. "The penguins, the puffin and that lemur. Where...are...they?" she added, gritting her beak in frustration.

"Disappeared..." he answered simply in a monotone voice.

"Where did they disappear too?" she continued asking. He just shrugged, showing her that he doesn't know. "Urgh, useless. Jade, give me my book..."

The other, green-eyed figure, now classified as Jade, passed her a book that looked similar to mainstream books of the dead. She browsed through the many pages filled with incoherent writings of another language. Then, she stopped on one page and read it out loud.

A second after she read it, some portal appeared and it showed the same six figures they were looking for in some kind of HQ. "Darn it! They're back in New York!" she yelled. Just then, she heard one a familiar voice say they were headed to Brazil. "Ooh, we gotcha now Manfredi..."

The portal then disappeared and she turned to face Jade, who looked at her blankly. "Sis, we're going to Rio..." she said before saying another passage out loud in what seemed to be Latin and they disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The guard? Well, he went back to normal not remembering anything that happened and went back to his post.

_Normal POV (Josh's POV):_  
Back at the airport, we climbed aboard yet another plane headed for Rio and through the next few hours of flight, we all decided to sleep in as we hadn't slept for quite a while. We all slept in different corners of the place, Hans right beside the trapdoor out of this metal bird.

6 hours later, we made it. It seemed longer than the first plane trip, but this was definitely faster, after I checked the watch again. Again, we waited for the plane to halt before moving out.

_[22 hours since incident - 1226 hours New York Time]_

Swiftly and quietly, we snuck out of the airport to the streets leading to the main part of Rio. "So, where is your old friend at?" I asked Manfredi as we trekked through the streets filled with various Brazilians, some wearing costumes for what looked like...

"Carnival!" Private yelled, unknowingly completing my thought. I took another look around and saw a few more people wearing costumes. "Oh Josh, can I go! Please please please please please!" Private continued.

"I don't know Private. With the what's happening now, the Chinstrap Sisters may be anywhere..." I turned to Manfredi, who had stopped in front of some Portuguese restaurant, and asked him if it was ok for Private to watch the Carnival. The weird thing was, nobody cared about seeing random animals wandering the place. It was like a norm to them.

"Sure he can. Carnival is a great thing to watch, or even better to be in it..." he explained. "Just make sure he's not alone. Someone should go with him, just to be safe. Like Josh said, the Chinstrap Sisters could be anywhere. They may even be here already. Just keep your eyes peeled..."

With that, Private cheered boisterously. Johnson, Nick and Rico then volunteered to follow Private to watch the Carnival. "Great. Just meet us here when we tell you..." I said as I passed them a walkie talkie. "This thing has ludacris range, so I can contact you from anywhere..." Nick took it from my flipper cautiously.

"Is this Kowalski-made? Cause I don't want it to blow up in my face..." she joked. I laughed and assured her it won't; Hans and Blowhole had checked it for any defects and adjusted it accordingly. "Ok, we'll see you later..." Then, they rushed to get to the Carnival.

The rest of us entered the restaurant and entered the kitchen. Manfredi told us to be extra quiet and careful as we made our way to freezer. Once there, he knocked three times and waited for about 5 seconds before we opened it. We didn't know what the heck he was doing but we followed him in.

To our surprise, instead of seeing a whole room covered in frost and filled with all kinds of meat, our eyes met a grandly lit hallway. We followed him in and he closed the door behind us, where we turned to see it was actually a wall.

The place looked so grand, yet small, like a penguin-sized mansion. The floor was mahogany brown and so polished that you could see yourself on it. The walls were also mahogany brown with silver coloured chandeliers hanging every few feet on the ceiling. It looked so urban, retro and modern all at the same time.

"Daniel! Daniel, are you here!" Manfredi called out. Seconds later, the sound of footsteps filled the cooling, air-conditioned air. Then, at the other end of the hallway from where the door was, came a sheep carrying a clipboard and wearing black rectangular spectacles. He was standing on his hind legs and walking just like a human. From here, he was about Ernie's height.

"Manfredi? Is that you?" the sheep asked in a slight Australian Surfer accent.

"It's been a long time, but yeah, it's me..." answered Manfredi.

"Oh my fleece, dude! I thought you were in prison!" he said, running to him and giving him a man-hug.

Manfredi smirked at him when they separated. "Was in prison..." he said. He then turned to face us. "Guys, meet Daniel. Daniel Ekidana Tuft..." He reached a paw out to give a handshake.

"Josh. Josh Everett..."

"Hansel Svensen VII or Hans..."

"Ernie. Ernie Jenkins..."

"Nice to meet you all. You can either call me Daniel, like Manfredi over here, or you can call me Bagel..." he replied. We looked at him confused.

"Bagel? Why Bagel?" I asked.

"I love bagels..." he answered simply. "So, what brings you here Manfredi? Wanna catch up and play Barrel Dodger or something?" he asked. Manfredi shook his head.

"No, we're here on official business..." Manfredi explained. "We need access to the library to look up some black magic curses and see if we can find any that match the one Skipper and Kowalski have on them..."

"Skipper? Oh your commanding officer, right..." He then gestured to the room he came from. "This a-way..." he said. We followed him down and we were dumb-founded when our eyes met the library. It was GI-GAN-TIC! Two story tall shelves filled with book after book filled the gargantuan space, with tall rolling ladders on them for easier access.

"Ok...Agriculture...Anatomy...Atlases...Atomic Bomb Making for Dummies...Bank Robbery for Dummies...A-HA! Black Magic Spells and Curses..." He took out a book from the shelf and gave it to Manfredi. It looked very old and was covered on brown leather or something. "That is the best book about black magic you can get..." he explained confidently.

After hearing that, Manfredi filled through the pages and browsed through them. "Found it...oh great..." he said. "They were cursed with...the Zenocravatious Death Curse..." We gasped at this. We all looked at the page and read:

_The Zenocravatious Death Curse_

_The Zenocravatious Death Curse is an ancient curse that dates back thousands of years. Its origin and creator is unknown but it was mostly used by witches to curse their victim with only five days left of their life. On the fifth day's dawn, the victim is supposedly sent to the underworld. The method of performing the curse was later believed to be stolen by two black and white birds in the late 15 hundreds, but such a thing was never proven nor recorded. The curse was never heard from since then._

_The symptoms of this curse vary with each victim, but these are the most commonly reported ones. They are:_

_-Weakness,  
-Unconsciousness,  
-Inability to move around freely,  
-Loss of appetite,  
-Deteriorating health and of course,  
-Death_

_A cure for this deadly curse may exist, but it's impossible whether this claim is true or not. The possible 'list' for the cure is in this chunk of scribbling, founded in an ice cave in Antarctica about four hundred years after it mysteriously disappeared. No one was ever able to figure out what it meant, and even till this day, it is still unsolvable, due to it's unknown language._

We all then read, or at least tried reading the writing that was written into the book. It said:

_Ifev adsy si lal oyu ahev ot eske,  
hte ifev htnisg oyu iwll ahev ot ekpe._

_Hte ifsrt si foetn esne ta lpya,  
tis suaully hwne oyu tsrat hte ady._

_A etra fo hte rgcafelus fo hte esa,  
ertsrose hte ivtcmis tslone lgee._

_Imx ni hte rpdetaros rcmiosn erd,  
ot ehpl hte ucsrde nose fof hte ebd._

_Entx htnig oylul ende ot ird hte ucsre,  
si hte loedts cie no aEtrh._

_Onw lal httas eltfs ot rpvoe hte obdn,  
ebofer hte iftfh adsy ilhgt fo adnw._

We were all shocked. Skipper and Kowalski were cursed to die? That was too much to take in at once. What made things worse was that the only possible cure is in some alien language that...

"I know what this is..." Manfredi said. We looked at him as he pointed at the mess of letters that was supposed to be the cure. "This is not a language. This is a code!" he exclaimed happily.

"Code? How are you sure this is a code?" Ernie asked. Hans just looked on, quiet as a breeze. I did just the same.

"This word gives it all away..." he explained as he pointed at the word 'aEtrh'. "This code is the same one Jade taught me. It's called Penguin-Pen. All you have to do is swap every two letters around in each word. If it is an uneven word, then you leave the last letter where it is..." he continued.

We looked back at the word he pointed at and tried the method he mentioned. "Holy Halibut! This spells 'Earth'!" I said, pointing at the word before. "Ok, let's get cracking!" I ordered as I regurgitated a pen and some paper to write on.

_A/N: How was it? The riddle I have written for the story has finally seen its debut! And yes, it's a riddle. Here's a fun challenge to do. Using Manfredi's code, which I made for him, try to decode it and send the whole, decoded chunk to me __**via PM!**__ Why PM? I don't want it in the reviews so some random person sees it earlier than supposed to be, that is if you solved it right._

_Oh, a few already know the riddle and tried their luck answering it, so if you're one of them, please keep the answers a secret as well as the riddle itself! Remember, penguins honor! Oh, the stories "Three Heartwarming Words" and "The POM Truth Or Dare Games" will take a while to complete. Either Blowhole, Hans or Kowalski stole my memory for some experiment or something…_


	7. Chapter 6

_A/N: And we are finally back guys! Sorry for no chapters last week; the holidays made me feel too lazy to write anything, but today, I have three chapters from three different stories ready to be posted! YAY! Well, remember the deciphering of the chunk of weirdness? Well, a few have sent in correct entries and I will now add their names here. Plus, a few have practically solved the riddle, so I will display their scores!_

_Honorary Penguin-Pen Code Breakers:_

_-alexia1012_

_-POMCPH2OLover_

_-vdademj93_

_-randomfanfictioner01_

_Elite Riddle Solvers:_

_-POMCPH2OLover; 3 and a half (You solved the hardest one as well!)_

_-randomfanfictioner01; 3 and a half (Plus hardest one, but I won't tell you which, or which answer is the correct one cause you gave a few, but we'll find out at the end…)_

_And these are the authors who have decoded and/or solved the riddle! Congratulations to y'all! You are all awesome and out-of-the-box thinkers, or just good at solving riddles. Anyway, here in this chapter, three of those things will be revealed, plus the correct translation of the riddle (with the hidden punctuation marks). ENJOY!_

**Chapter 6:**

_When Carnival Attacks_

The events from before replayed in his head, like a memory trying to get out, clawing its way into the real world. It hurt more than the numbness he could feel physically. But, his memory continued on playing from where it had abruptly stopped.

_Flashback POV (First Person POV):_

"MANFREDI!" I yelled as a huge chunk of rock landed on Manfredi, pinning him down by his right foot. He screamed in pain as I ran to get the rock of him. Johnson ran to help as well as soon as he snapped out of his daze.

"Don't move! We'll get this thing off you...before...you...know it!" I assured as I tried lifting the rock off. It weighed a few tons, and even with Johnson's help, it wouldn't even budge. Manfredi yelped in pain as the pressure on his foot fluctuated each time we tried lifting it.

"GO! SAVE YOURSELVES! I'LL...URGH! I'll be alright!" he tried, but we didn't listen.

"We're not leaving without you!" offered Johnson. "No penguin left behind!" The roof of the structure was crumbling fast and we all needed to get out of there, fast.

"It's no use! It won't budge!" Manfredi was right. The rock wouldn't move one bit. But we couldn't leave Manfredi behind, not now, not ever. "Go! Take this, and just go!" he continued, passing us the talisman. Then, I had an idea, but it wasn't pretty.

"Manfredi, I've got an idea, but you wouldn't like it," I said, knowing his reaction would be to deny it. He gestured me to continue as the rubble fell around us. "We're gonna have to...cut off your leg..."

His face went pale, despite the white feathers that hid it. But, against all odds, he said 'do it'. It scared me. Was he serious? Maybe it was because he knew it was our only choice if we wanted to get out alive.

I took out the ice pick we had with us and raised it above his mangled leg. Johnson covered his eyes, not wanting to see it, while Manfredi focused his attention at me. I almost couldn't do it, but before I could change my mind, the pick swung straight down with excessive force.

**"HOLY MOTHER OF HERRING AND HALIBUT! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!"**

_Normal POV:_

Skipper shot up from his position in his bunk, taking a huge gasp of air. Everyone awoke from his; Chris literally fell over from the cinder block he sat on. They all rushed to him, only to find he was knocked unconscious again after slamming his head on the bunk's ceiling.

"Their conditions are getting worse," said Ash as she looked at the life-support machines. "I really hope Josh and the rest could find a way to fix this soon..."

[1 Day since incident - 1417 hours New York Time]

"Finally! We got something!" I said as we translate the last part of the writing. From what can now read, it was a riddle that may be clues to how we can make the cure, if it was one. We read aloud:

_Five days is all you have to seek,_

_the five things you will have to keep._

_The first is often seen at play,_

_it's usually when you start the day._

_A tear of the gracefuls of the sea,_

_restores the victim's stolen glee._

_Mix in the predator's crimson red,_

_to help the cursed ones off the bed._

_Next thing you'll need to rid the curse,_

_is the oldest ice on Earth._

_Now all that's left's to prove the bond,_

_before the fifth day's light of dawn._

"Ok, so anyone knows what any of this means?" I asked, trying to decipher it myself. "Cause if I decipher it right, the first two lines mean we have five days to find five things..."

Hans then pointed at the fifth and sixth lines. "I think this means a tear from a graceful creature that lives in the sea..." he said. "But what is the graceful creature they are referring to?"

Bagel then interjected. "Dolphins," he said. "Dolphins are the most graceful creatures of the sea, as what humans have marked them as..." he added with confidence.

"Makes sense. How about the rest?" I asked, my eyes glancing at each one of us.

"Predator's crimson red. Crimson red is the colour of blood. And because we are penguins, as well as Skipper and Kowalski, we are looking at leopard seal blood..." Manfredi guessed. "That or we could try for Orca blood. That's all I could make out..." he added.

Ernie then pointed at the ninth and tenth lines. "This is obviously Antarctic ice. Where else can you get ice any older than the time of the dinosaurs?" he asked rhetorically. A moment of silence passed before we all nodded at the inference.

I then stood up from the translated text. "Well, we've got the dolphin tears, cause I bet Doris is crying over Kowalski as we speak, so all we need now is the leopard seal blood, which I know exactly how we can get, and a chunk of ancient Antarctic ice..." I said. "Oh, and of course the other two we haven't figured out..."

"Perfect. Call the rest back," Manfredi said before I took out my walkie talkie. "We've got four more days before the inevitable, so we better get moving..."

_Private's POV:_

I never knew Carnival was so entertaining! I just can't imagine what it would be like at night! The lights, the floats, the performers! Oh, it was a dream come true! I finally seen a _REAL_ Carnival, in Rio! Now, the next thing on my list is to see the Northern lights.

_"Loud and clear. What is it Josh? Uh huh...uh huh...alright, we're on our way,"_ Nick suddenly said from the bleachers we sat under. There weren't any seats left; even animals were sitting in them. Dogs, birds of all kinds and other animals sat along with the humans. The world's a funny place I guess.

"What did Josh say?" I asked curiously.

"He said we should start heading back now. They think they know what to do to help Skipper and Kowalski," she explained. Rico whined in disappointment, wanting to stay and watch the rest of the Carnival. Johnson and I nodded in response, Rico nodding in defeat right after.

Then, something caught my eye. I thought I was imagining things when I turned to see what I may have seen, but there was nothing there. Then I saw it again. Something was moving so fast and silently that I thought it was a ghost. "Let's go," I asked anxiously.

_Third Person POV:_

"Oh, so they are here," said Scarlet as she spied on four figures sitting under some bleachers. She and Jade were hiding out in one of the Carnival floats, knowing one of them would surely want to watch Carnival.

She evilly gazed at a griffin prop on the float she was on. "Let's send them a gift from the Chinstrap Sisters, shall we?" She muttered some words at the prop and it started moving. "Destroy them," she said plainly, pointing at the figures. The animated griffin prop then ran at lightning speeds towards the figures.

_Normal POV:_

"Come on guys. We'll meet up with them outside," Manfredi said right after I finished calling the rest to meet up. The next place we had to go to was Antarctica, and that would take two and a half days by boat, so we shouldn't waste anymore time.

Manfredi started for the entrance and we followed close behind, but a tap on the shoulder halted me. I turned to meet the face of Bagel, who was holding out a small book. "Take this," he started. I took it from his paw and looked at it. It looked similar to the book before but it was a penguin-sized pocketbook.

"It's a book of spells that may be useful on your journey. Don't worry, it's not black magic, but a good kind of magic. Just follow it exactly and it should work."

I thanked him and followed after the rest, who were waiting impatiently at the entrance. "I hope my judgment is right," Bagel said to himself. "He looks just like the one in the prophecy."

[1 Day, 1 Hour since incident - 1524hours New York Time]

"Where are they?" asked Ernie. We had been waiting for at least half an hour but the four were still nowhere to be seen. I tried contacting them with the walkie talkie, but all we got was static. That only meant they were quite a ways away from us than before.

Suddenly, the screaming of humans and other animals filled the air. A wave of fear engulfed us all as we see a panicked crowd in front of us running away from something that moved so fast, it was virtually impossible to see what it was. Then, we spot the four in the crowd.

_**"GUYS, RUUUUNNNN!"**_ yelled Nick.

_A/N: Uh oh! The Chinstrap Sisters are trying to delay us by using their black magic skills to their advantage! What is that creature capable of? Will we make it out alive? Will we get the cure ready in time? R&R to help the team save Skipper and Kowalski! Oh, and see y'all next time!_


	8. Chapter 7

_A/N: Yay! New chapter! Well, we are getting nearer to when two sneak peak characters will appear and nearer to when the time comes. So, please enjoy this and check out my other, pretty successful TABS called The Chosen Series. I thank all the reviewers so we shall continue on!_

**Chapter 7:**

_The Bagel Hero_

Upon hearing the warning, we instantly turned and ran for cover from the screaming crowd of Brazilians barreling down the streets. They seem to be a mixture of performers and spectators, both human and animal alike.

We ducked behind a car, the terrified crowd passing us by. Then, Nick, Rico, Johnson and Private joined us behind the car. "What's going on?! What was that thing?!" Ernie asked.

"I don't know, it's too fast!" replied Johnson.

"It looked like some sort of lion...bird thing!" added Nick.

Manfredi then snuck a peek at the scene and saw the creature looking like it was trying to sniff us out. "Oh my Herring paste, it's a...Griffin," he answered as he ducked back down.

"A Griffin?! What is a Griffin doing here?! Aren't they like...not real?" I asked.

Manfredi shifted his gaze to me. "Oh, you're right about that, but that didn't look real at all," he said. "It looked like it was made of paper, like it was...oh of course it was them!"

We all looked at him like he just lost his marbles. "Urgh...I mean the Chinstrap Sisters!" We all gave a big 'ohhh...', telling him that we understood. "I think they used some reanimation spell or something..."

We all immediately quieted down when a low growl was heard just above where we hid. We crawled under the car, trying not to look up or make any noise. It jumped down onto the asphalt, its large, plastic claws scratching the ground irritably.

"Hey you!" a familiar voice shouted out of the blue. The Griffin clearly turned to its source and growled. We shifted to see what it was looking at and there stood Bagel, standing just outside the restaurant his library hid in.

Then, he took out some long stick from what seemed like a branch or something. It stood as tall as himself and it deemed great resemblance to Gandalf's staff in Lord of the Rings.

The creature then ran so fast towards him that all we saw was a big, moving blur. Despite this, Bagel successfully dodged it with a jump. When he landed, he aimed the stick at it, on its end, which I never noticed before, was a white, cloudy crystal.

What we saw next was insane.

"Do desejo de magia negra, queimar no fogo do inferno!" he shouted in what sounded like Portuguese. (Translation: From black magic's desire, burn down with hell's fire! (Sorry if it's slightly wrong; I used Google Translate))

An orange ball of light then shot out of the crystal and set the Griffin on fire, causing it to run straight for water.

"What the?!" Nick said before Bagel called us out.

"Quickly dudes! Head for a boat! I'll keep it busy!" Without wasting another second, we nodded and crawled out from under the car and started running for one of the nearby boats at the docks. As we did, more Portuguese phrases loomed from where Bagel was.

"Over there!" Johnson said, pointing at a decent sized trawler. One by one, we all hopped in, Ernie heading straight for the ship's wheel. Luckily, the key was in, so we started it up and collectively helped steer it out to sea.

"That was close!" Nick commented when we were decently far enough for the shore. We all just glanced at each other, all tired from the escape. "So, I guess now we just play the waiting game, right?"

Everyone nodded and flopped onto the floor like some coordinated flash mob group, well besides Ernie and I, who were busy steering the trawler.

"Hey," Ernie started. "You go rest up. I've got it under control here, for now."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, don't sweat it. I took boating lessons too you know." I slipped out a single chuckle and nodded.

"Penguins can't sweat dude. We got feathers for...uh, forget it. You know what I mean," I said, jumping down to the others, who were alsleep all over the place. "Haha, lol," I simply commented.

I went over to a crate just opposite the controls and took out that book that Bagel gave me right before we left the library. "I guess I better start reading this, whatever it's supposed to be."

[1 Day, 10 hours since incident - 0251 hours New York Time]

Nine hours passed, and throughout those nine hours I read various passages and writings from that book, all in what seemed to be in both Portuguese and English, the English part in someone's handwriting. For each passages I read in my mind, the English translation that Bagel most probably wrote helped me understand what it was about.

The others woke up around three hours ago and are currently exploring the trawler for anything we would need when we reach Antarctica. We managed to find some blankets and snow jackets for Ernie and anyone else who felt cold when we arrive so they can protect themselves against the extreme cold of Antarctica. The penguins of the group didn't really need any, but Hans may need it too.

We had around another two and a half days before we would reach Antarctica, so would better be quick when we make it there, or we may not be able to get back in time. I still had the 'Home' button, so returning wouldn't be too hard.

I'm driving the boat now. Ernie needed a small break from the driving so I had to take over. I wonder what's Skipper's and Kowalski's condition right now. I hope their still with us when we get back.

They can't die on us now.

[2 Days since incident - 1629 hours New York Time]

It was a grusome sight, but we had more important things to do than vomit all over the place. I put the now-bloodied pick back in its sheath and we helped Manfredi up to his remaining foot. We had to get him out of there before we could treat it, so we carried him out as quickly as we could through the intertwining maze of rubble.

We kept moving through, more and more of his blood draining onto the floor. He had already passed out when we took his foot off, which made it harder to drag him out. Upon seeing the exit, we ran as quickly as we could ever run and jumped straight through, ignoring the fact that there were stairs going down to cave floor.

Just as we did jumped through, the whole temple just stopped rumbling and we tumbled down the stairs. After rather painful landing, we glanced back at the temple to see it completely intact, like how it was when we first arrived.

"Manfredi!" I said, ignoring the weirdness behind me. He was bleeding badly from his now cut-off foot, a big pool of blood forming where he laid. I immediately asked Johnson for the first aid supplies and I started on Manfredi's leg.

"Don't die on us! Not now! Please come back!" I pleaded to his limp body.

Normal POV:

Ash nearly jumped out of her fur when Skipper randomly gasped and fell out of his bunk. It was nearly a day since the last time he awoke, but as always, he was unconscious when we went over to check him.

"Why does this keep happening to Skipper?" Ash asked her penguin step-sister. "This never happened at all on Kowalski, so why is it only on Skipper?"

"I hope they would get better soon. I don't know how long they have left," Gem commented. Ash agreed.

"I just hope this even has a cure, and that they're not too late when they get it here."

_A/N: Hmm, I have nothing else to say other than I am now working on, just a little bit, on another original story based OFF The Penguins of Madagascar! Yeah, it is more of inspired by POM, cause it includes my ever awesome Josh Everett! Many of my OCs will be in it, cause they're mine, so I hope I can write the storyline as best as The Chosen Series. R&R!_


	9. Chapter 8

_A/N: Alright mates! I have added in loglines for most of the stories I have wrote and these include this series, The Chosen Series, a few of my single stories and The Otter And Her Penguin, which is now a series I call "The Bonds Of Life Saga". The story of skipper's past also has its own series name, "The Chronicles Of Life", which includes whatever life stories about the penguins! The next would possibly be Private's, but we'll see. There will also be Rico, Kowalski, Marlene and Hans._

_And, thanks to all the reviewers! You all get a jar of virtual crumpets…each! Baked by Private and his Uncle Nigel, so enjoy! Plus, Bagel is only half-owned by me. The creator of him is my real life friend, Eyelordcakless._

**Chapter 8:**

_The Future Of The Past_

_[3 Days, 15 Hours since incident - 0726 hours New York Time]_

Side to side. Up and down. The whole journey was monotonous and boring. We would sail south, change positions every few hours; Ernie to me, Manfredi, Johnson then back to Ernie. Most of us were bored out of our minds and did nothing but stare out into the great blue.

Ernie would take the early afternoon shift, I would take the late afternoon or evening shift, Manfredi the night shift and Johnson; the late night or early morning shift. The rest would either try to figure out the last few phrases to the riddle or go and get some fish for us to eat. It's pretty surprising that we've sailed for so long yet we just made it a few miles off Antarctica waters. Twenty-three miles left I guess.

It was now Ernie's shift, so I continued reading and re-reading the texts in the book Bagel gave me to try and memorise them. I still don't get how it would work for us if I never used magic before. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't even work cause I'm just a normal, penguinized human. Well, normal in a sense.

_"What are you reading there?"_ a voice asked, almost making me fall off the chest I was using as a chair. I looked over at the source of the voice to see Private, who seemed bored to the max.

I collected myself and put the book down for a while. "It's a...book that Bagel gave me before we left," I answered honestly.

"May I see it?" he asked innocently.

I tapped the space next to me and he climbed up the chest and sat beside me. "Here, maybe you'll have more luck understanding it."

He took it from my flippers and started reading. He flipped page to page, browsing through the various handwritten texts and drawings. "It says these only work when you say the original text out loud," he suddenly started.

"What? I read the whole thing but I didn't see anything saying something like that."

Private turned over to the front page and pointed at a line of text. "That's because it's in Portuguese. See?" True enough, the text was in Portuguese.

I looked at him, a bit amazed. "When did you learn to read Portuguese?" I asked. I know Nick and I taught them how to read English, but Portuguese?!

"I said I always wanted to go Carnival, so I taught myself after you guys taught us English. You know, learn the language of the place you want to visit to make it easier to communicate. It wasn't that hard."

I looked him, amused. I then took back the book and flipped to one page in particular. "So, if we read this text here out loud, it would work?" I asked, pointing at the Portuguese text on it.

"I can't say for sure, but that's what the book says."

_"What book says what?"_ a voice suddenly started. We turned to face Manfredi, who was looking at us curiously from the foot of the chest. He seemed a bit suspicious, a bit like Skipper if you ask me.

I decided to tell him the truth, since I know he knows more of this magic stuff then me. "The book that Bagel gave me," I replied. "A book about spells like the one Bagel used, I think."

Manfredi instantly climbed up to us and asked if he could see it. He flipped through the pages as well and looked as confused as me. "Well, this is definitely not black magic. If it were, then the whole thing would have been in Latin."

Then, he flipped back to the page where we were on before. "Hey, this is a transportation spell," he inferred.

"You don't say," I replied sarcastically.

He just rolled his eyes and started reading the text. "Ready on the count of two, transport us to...Antarctica, one, two!" he exclaimed.

Nothing happened.

I did a faceflipper and took the book from him. "You're supposed to read the Portuguese text, genius." I then cleared my throat and tried reading. "Wait, um, what's Antarctica in Portuguese?" I asked Private.

"Antártica."

"Really? Whatever, here goes nothing." I leaned flipper against the wall and started. "Pronto...na contagem de..dois, nos trans-portar...para a...Antártica, um, dois!"

Still nothing happened.

"Huh, why didn't that..." My sentence got cut when suddenly a bright flash of light radiated from the boat and blinded us. Then, the boat crashed. But not on something in the water.

We crashed on the icy tundra of Antarctica.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF COPENHAGEN JUST HAPPENED!" Hans yelled, after finding himself buried under Johnson and Rico. Nick and Ernie had also fallen to the floor, along with Private, Manfredi and I.

"Well...it works," Private said as he got to his feet. We all took a moment to gather ourselves. We immediately noticed the colder temperatures and passed Ernie the snow jacket, which was a bit oversized but otherwise effective.

Then, Johnson spoke up. "Ok, now can somebody please explain what just happened?" he asked. I was about to answer when Manfredi butted in.

"Transportation spell. The one in the book Bagel gave Josh," he explained. I held up the book just so they know what he meant. "Why he gave him the book, I don't know."

"He said it was to defend ourselves, possibly from the Chinstrap Sisters' black magic," I interjected. Manfredi nodded.

"I can see that possibility, but if it indeed is black magic it disguise or some other form of sorcery, then I don't think we should mess with it. It can corrupt the minds of those who use it, making them crave for destruction and violence," he said. "In other words, the devil inside you takes over, and you can't escape it without pure magic."

We all had the same reaction to his last words. "Pure magic?" we all asked, almost in complete unison.

"It's just a myth. Pure magic doesn't exist, because black magic destroyed it centuries ago, never to be used again. That is why the Chinstrap Sisters can't be stop. They are too corrupted to turn away from the clutches of black magic and the only other way to purify them is by using pure magic, or by killing them, as the saying goes."

Silence filled the space as the howling wind tried to break it. We were still processing the information Manfredi gave us, but I still had one last question on my mind.

"How do you know all this?" Manfredi gave me a gaze and pointed at the book.

"From the same guy who gave you that," he answered. "He's pretty much an expert on this kind of stuff, plus he seems to believe one day pure magic will rise again and defeat black magic," he added, intriguing me and the rest more. We all obviously wanted to know more on what we were up against, but not us much as me.

He looked at all our faces and sighed. "Ok, everyone sit down for a while, and I'll tell you about it. You all deserve to know after all we've been through." So, everyone did as told and he began relating the so-called prophecy that Bagel believed in.

"A few centuries ago, pure magic hailed dominant against black magic. Before, only humans used such power. The pure magic sorcerers always prevailed over the black magic sorcerers. Balanced was kept so long as pure magic sorcerers were there to keep it that way. Where the sides of magic originated from, nobody really knows. What we do know is this. The most powerful pure magic sorcerer, Zenocravatious, died from a death curse that was later named after him after two animals wielded the power of black magic. And you know who those two animals are?"

Immediately, we all replied, "The Chinstrap Sisters."

"Correct. But, because he died, so did pure magic altogether. The other pure magic sorcerers lost their powers and quickly they were eliminated. The world plunged into darkness, spiralling it into what's known as the Dark Ages. It was only after other animals and humans learned other forms of magic did the black magic die down, but not forever. Instead, it was practiced in secret, till the time was right. Pure magic never returned, but it is prophesied that after 500 centuries, pure magic will be reborn, but not by a human, but an animal; a penguin. When the Chinstrap Sisters finally caught up with the news, they sworn to eliminate this penguin before pure magic could get reborn. It was only faith that they thought that penguin was..."

"You?" Hans finished. Manfredi nodded sadly.

"I don't really know why, but that's what they thought. What made things worse was when Skipper and Johnson tried to defend me. Why did they? Because they used us to get them the most powerful artifact ever known to both pure and black magic sorcerers alike; The Talismen Of The Blood Moon Eclipse." He then took off his peg leg and poured out its contents. Obviously it was hollow.

He showed us what he hid in it, which was a beautifully carved red gemstone. It was shaped like a hexagon and looked like a gemstone Mentos or something. "I took this from that Talismen, which is the most important part for it to work."

We all awed at the diamond-like gemstone, mesmerised by it like it had magical properties of its own. "What is it?" Nick asked curiously.

Manfredi then put the gem back in his peg leg and replaced it. "It's a Blood Ruby; the rarest gem on Earth. Not many people know why The Talismen Of The Blood Moon Eclipse was even created for, but they say it is as old as the Earth itself. It is believed to serve as a key to open the gates to the underworld and free the Army of Darkness to take over the world, which was the reason why I took it, to prevent that."

"So," Ernie started, drawing our attention to him. "Now they are after us to get that from you? To reunite it with the Talismen and summon the Army of Darkness?" Manfredi simply nodded again. "So, why don't you just destroy it? That way..."

"I've already tried," interrupted Manfredi. "It's been enchanted to become indestructible. Only pure magic can make it destructible again. The only way to keep them from taking over the world is to protect it from them; make sure they don't get their flippers on it."

He then stood up and store out the door, into the eternal white of Antarctica. "I should have guessed it when you guys came to bust us out. That was the only place that was safe from their magic, because we were invisible there." He turned to look back at us. "That very prison was built directly on Zenocravatious' castle grounds; the very enchanted grounds to keep black magic out and protect the survival of pure magic and the world."

His gaze soon landed on Hans, and a slight smile crept up to his face, but quickly disappeared. "I should actually thank you Hans. If it wasn't for you, I would have never been able to hide the gem from them for this long."

"Uh...thanks?" Hans replied awkwardly. Manfredi gave him a nod and a small salute. He returned it and smiled.

"How come I don't know this?" asked Johnson. We all thought about it, and it was true. Why didn't he know about it?

Manfredi waddled over to him and said, "Because, they erased your memory." Johnson was instantly taken aback. "After I took the gem, you blocked me from being hit by one of their spells and, well, I think you can figure out the rest."

Everything made sense now; why the Chinstrap Sisters cursed Skipper. They did it so we would find Manfredi and Johnson, so they could retrieve the gem and rule the world. I waddled over to Manfredi and held out a flipper.

"Well, if they want to get that gem from you, then they'll have to go through me." I said with an air of confidence. Soon, the rest followed my example.

"They have to go through me too," Nick agreed.

"Us too," said Private, Rico and Ernie.

"You have my word, my old friend," Hans swore, giving Manfredi a bro hug.

"Thanks guys. Without your help, we may not be able to do this at all." He looked back out the tundra we were in, then back to us. "Now let's go save Skipper and Kowalski."

_A/N: Ok then, I hope that this sheds some light on the magic subject and also gives a small sneak peak on what is going to happen in part 6. I hope you liked it! R&R!_


	10. Chapter 9

_A/N: And we are back! This is chapter 9 of part five and we are on a roll. I can actually promise you, after parts five and six, the madness will escalate to the extreme levels! Eyelordcakeless and I have already planned parts 7, 8 and 9! He has co-authored the storyline of part 9, so thanks to him!_

_Oh, thanks to reviewers and here are the loglines to the entire series!_

_-Once in a Lifetime: Some things happen only once_

_-Back 2 Penguin Land: Here we go again…_

_-Three Heartwarming Words: Reality meets Virtuality_

_-4Ever Or Never: Time is everything…_

_-On The Fifth Day: No penguin left behind_

_And for a good teaser, here's part 6's!_

_-Six Feet Under: The battle between good and evil is on_

**Chapter 9:**

_Journey Down The Earth_

_[3 Days, 19 Hours since incident - 1136 hours New York Time]_

The bleeding didn't stop, even with all the bandages I put on it. The floor and our feathers were being painted in red as I knelt there, trying to save my friend's life.

I could tell Johnson was in complete shock. We may have been prepared for this situation, but we had never imagined it to happen. Oh, first aid, please help us now.

"Johnson!" I called, snapping him out his daze. "Help we get Manfredi outta here, fast!" Without any hesitation, he grabbed Manfredi's left flipper and I grabbed Manfredi's right. We hoisted him up to our shoulders and painfully started to climb our way out of the cavern.

We helped each other lift, carry and hoist the limp penguin out, being careful not to fall off ourselves. The last thing we need is for another one of us to get seriously injured.

"Almost...there...Manfredi! Just...hang...on!" I said, hoping he would hear it even in his condition. With one last lift, we made it to the surface. Back to where the snow was and where the sisters were.

"Guys, you're ba..." Jade froze upon the sight of us covered in a thick red liquid. "Oh my god, what happened!" The two quickly ran to us as we lay tired on the ice cold snow.

"Scarlet! Do something!" pleaded Jade.

"The Talismen first!" said Scarlet. "Did you get it?!"

I then threw it to her, where it bounced off her chest and onto the snow. "There's your stupid talismen! Now help him!" I ordered angrily. We could waste any more time, because I didn't know how much time Manfredi had left.

Scarlet then knelt down and picked up the Talismen. "Yes...finally." She placed it around her neck and a red aura shined off it. It must have been the sunlight reflecting off the red gem in the center, since we were now above ground.

She then went ahead and examined Manfredi's wounds. "We need to bring him to our cave. There's still a chance we can save him."

_Normal POV:_

Skipper woke up silently. There was nothing around him but an envelope of silence. He felt the presence of another soul in his proximity; he felt it was as weak as him. He painfully shifted his head to his right to find a monochrome figure lying in the bunk diagonally opposite him.

_"Kowal...ski..."_ he whispered weakly. The memories then returned to him. The Chinstrap Sisters barging in, the bottle of who-knows-what, Manfredi and Johnson. He just wished those years ago that none of that ever happened so they wouldn't be here like this right now.

_"I'm...sorry..."_ he whispered before he slipped back into the dark depths of unconsciousness. A small tear fell ever so silently just as it happened.

_[3 Days, 19 Hours since incident - 1158 hours New York Time]_

"Gosh darn it! It's so hard to see here!" I griped as we trudged to the thick snow. Even with our penguin feet - which are designed to ease walking on snow, it was still hard to move. Ernie didn't have much luck either in mobility.

"Don't worry. It's just slight white blindness. It'll go away as soon you adjust to the place," assured Ernie. With the combination of his fur and the snow jacket, he was barely shaking from the cold.

"Can anyone see any leopard seals anywhere?" asked Manfredi. He had the worst; each time he stepped, his peg leg would sink into the snow. We solved it after attaching a piece of plywood Rico had with him - in his gut I mean.

We all shook our heads as we looked around for any signs of them. "Hey, over there!" Nick said. We looked over in the direction she was pointing at to find one leopard seal, who looked a bit familiar to us.

Johnson was first to take lead. "Come on Manfredi! Just like old times!" Immediately, Manfredi smirked and gave chase with Johnson towards the leopard seals. A gut feeling then swarmed me.

"Guys! Wait!" I quickly followed after, the rest getting the message to follow right after. "Wow, for a one-legged penguin, he sure runs fast!" I noted.

We turned the corner only to find the two mounted on the seal. _"HEY! GET...OFF...ME!"_ the leopard seal yelled in a voice we recognised completely.

"GUYS!" I yelled at them. They all froze in place and looked at me. "Oh, I knew I recognised you."

"Hunter!" Private yelled happily as he ran to give her a hug. She threw Manfredi and Johnson off and returned it.

"Wait, you know this monstrosity?" asked Manfredi. Hunter growled at him.

"Who you calling monster, buster!" she threw at him. I held Manfredi back as he tried to go and strangle her. "Don't know me, can't judge me."

"Ok, since some of you don't know who this is, let me do the introducing." I let go of Manfredi and he just glared back at Hunter. "Everyone, this is Hunter, one of our friends slash allies."

I looked over to Hunter. "And you've just met Manfredi and Johnson over here." She quickly wiped the frown off her face and offered her fin.

"Nice to meet you, Manfredi and Johnson." she said with a smile. They took it nervously. "Don't worry. I won't bite."

Manfredi looked at her skeptically. "But you're a leopard seal, aren't you?" he asked, making sound like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

She rolled her eyes. "I took an oath not to eat any penguins for as long as I live," she explained. "Besides, if I do...*shudders*, then my friendship with Private and you all would be over."

"Then what do you eat?" asked Johnson.

I then answered for her, "What we eat." John gave a sound of understanding.

"Ooh, but sometimes I eat squid, cause they're so gooey and delicious; like gummy seafood!" She shook the thought from her head. "Anyway, what are you guys doing here?"

Private answered, "Well Hunter, Skipper and Kowalski were cursed by the Chinstrap Sisters and we need leopard seal blood..."

"Wait, what did you say?" she asked, halting Private.

"Leopard seal blood?" he offered.

"Eww, no. Before that."

"Skipper and Kowalski?"

She then did a facefin. "Between those."

"Chinstrap Sisters?"

She nodded. "They're back?"

"Yes, they are," Hans replied for Private. Hunter was about to charge at the sight of him - since she doesn't know he's change - but I held her back and shook my head. "They cursed Skipper and Kowalski and the only way we can help them is by collecting all five of these items."

He showed her the riddle and she browsed through it. "We already know three of them; dolphin tear, some old chunk of ice and...well...a sample of your species' blood."

She looked up from reading it and looked at him. "So, you're asking me to donate some of my blood to help make a cure for Skipper and Kowalski?"

We all nodded in unison. "Well...they may not like me as much I don't like them, but since Private's their friends, I'm up to it."

"Is that a yes?" Nick asked. She gave a confident nod.

"Ok! Rico?" He then regurgitated a syringe used for injecting medicine; one that Skipper would start going crazy over. He handed me the syringe and I examined it.

"Is it gonna hurt?" she asked, her expression changing to a worried one. It was that same face a kid would give the first time he gets a shot.

"Just a sting," I assured as I prepared the syringe. "But I'm sure it won't hurt as much as that massive bruise Manfredi and Johnson just gave you a few minutes ago."

She then touched the side of her neck, which in turn caused her to flinch in pain. "Ow! Oh you are so dead!"

Before she could charge, I quickly put the needle into her fin, causing her to stop and yelp by the sting. I extracted about two-thirds full of her blood before pulling it back out. Nick then put a small pale band-aid in its place.

"Ouch," she said, almost sarcastically.

"Ok guys," I said, covering up the needle with its cover then swallowing it. "We have the tears and the blood, so now we need the ice and the last two after that." I turned to Manfredi and asked where we may be able to find the oldest ice possible.

"Easy. We head to the Temple of the Frost Fire Gem," he replied. "It about two hundred thousand feet below us and the cave it's in has the oldest ice you could ever imagine."

"How do we get there?" asked Private and Hans.

"There's two ways. The long way, which is a big, winding path of rock that heads all the way down, which takes about half to a full day to reach the bottom, or we could take my favourite way."

"Which is?" Nick asked, flippers crossed.

"A volcanic vent that has been extinct for over a million years with a volcanic lake now at its bottom that is 300 feet deep," he explained. "We call it..."

He did a small dramatic pause as he turned his direction to a bunch of mountains in the distance.

"Straight-Shot Chasm."

_A/N: Yeah, I just wanted them to do something crazy for a change, like Manfredi charging in to try and pin Hunter down like he had nine lives. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chappie! R&R_

_Also, if you want to see some pics of the characters and other mini spoilers, you can check me out on Facebook as "Joshpro Survivalist" or on DeviantART as Joshpro8423._


	11. Chapter 10

_A/N: Thanks to reviewers, let's go on. ENJOY!_

**Chapter 10:**

_Test Of Faith_

We all looked at him like he was crazy. "Wait, are you suggesting we jump down this chasm?!" asked Private.

"Well, with the time we have left...uh...how much time do we have left?" Manfredi gave me a look, so I regurgitated a watch and checked how much time we had left.

"It's twelve twenty-two in the afternoon New York Time now, so we have about one day and four hours left."

"Right. So tell me, would you rather take the scenic route or the quick route?" Manfredi asked, the question pinning us to choose the quick way.

"Fine. Quick route it is," we all answered.

"Good, then follow me. The chasm is this way." He turned around and we all reluctantly followed. We waved good bye to Hunter as we headed for what seemed like the craziest thing we will ever do; crazier than when I saved Skipper from that missile the first time we came here.

"It's a two-hour hike to get to Straight-Shot Chasm, so we better wing it," said Manfredi as he left us in the dust.

_[3 Days, 20 Hours since incident - 1237 hours New York Time]_

"Quick! Get him over here!" yelled Jade as she gestured us to carry Manfredi to a flat rock surface. It was tough when your teammate was one and a half times your own weight and you are exhausted from climbing up ten thousand feet from an underground temple slash cave with this same teammate.

Johnson and I carefully laid Manfredi down onto the rock-slab that looked like a table while Jade looked for some medical supplies. We saw Scarlet waltz pass us and into her supposed room of the cave to admire that talismen that caused this whole mess. What a self-centered female.

Jade came back with not what we expected but with a pile of books and some bottles of who-knows-what. She laid them all neatly on the rock slab and glanced behind her over to where Scarlet had retreated to.

"What's all this! Don't you have proper medical supplies anywhere?!" Johnson griped to her.

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing." She picked up a bottle of some purplish-red liquid and poured it over Manfredi's injury. She chanted some words in a language I couldn't even figure out and grabbed another bottle, this time with some greenish-blue powder and sprinkled it over the wound.

We watched as she scanned through the various books vigorously, apparently to find something in particular. She stopped on one page and recited what was on it. To our surprise, a yellowish light started to emit from his wounds. She just continued chanting the long paragraph of mumbo-jumbo as that light intensified into a big, bright, yellow glow.

We covered our faces from the blinding light, only for it to slowly fade away at the same speed it appeared, leaving us open-beaked at the result.

"Wha...wha..." I mumbled, completely speechless when I saw Manfredi's wound all closed up and not bleeding. Heck, there was no blood anywhere anymore!

"There. He should be alright now." She placed a flipper on Manfredi's forehead and recited more, alien phrases. His eyes then started fluttering before it opened completely, revealing a confused but alive Manfredi.

"Wh...where am I?" he asked as Jade helped him sit up.

Without any warning, Johnson and I jumped at him and gave him a hug. "Oh my god Manfredi! We thought we lost you!" we both said at the same time. Still confused, he just returned the hug.

When we parted, he gasped when he saw his leg. "Wah! What happened to my leg!" he screamed.

"We had to take it off when you were pinned by that rock, but Jade here fixed it up with...WAIT! What did you fix it with?!" She store at me blankly.

"What?" she asked, as if none of that ever happened.

"You know, that mumbo-jumbo thing you did! With those things and that and the chanting and..."

"Classified," she simply replied.

"TELL ME WOMAN! DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME!" I screamed. It was bad enough Manfredi lost his leg, but not telling me something I don't know; that's just pouring fuel into the fire. "What...was...that...you...did! Tell me or you'll find your beak backwards!"

She was taken aback from my words. She looked back at where Scarlet went off to and turned back to look me dead in the eye. "You want to know?" she whispered.

Before I could scream back at her, she held my beak shut and shushed. Johnson didn't do anything at all; same with Manfredi. "Ok, I used light magic, but don't tell Scarlet anything about this, ok?!" she said, working her way up from a whisper to her normal voice.

"Why not?" Johnson asked naively.

"Just don't, or I'm done for."

"What about my leg?" asked Manfredi.

"I'm sure you guys can fix him up some peg legs or something, right?" said Jade. We just nodded.

Just as we did, a dark beam of what appeared to be shadows hit Johnson, causing him to fall unconscious. "WHAT THE?!"

"Dang! I missed!" a voice said. We turned to find Scarlet, who was still wearing the Talismen, at the entrance of her 'room'. "You think you can escape me, chosen one?! Now die!"

"Guys, run!" Jade yelled to us as we all dodged another blast from Scarlet. I could swear I heard Jade chant more phrases at Johnson before he awoke. I called out to him and he got up and ran out the cave as I shouldered Manfredi solo.

We got into a bellyslide as soon as we got out and dashed away from their cave. "No! Come back here you fools! I will get you chosen one! I will not let you exhume pure magic! I will find you and kill you! All of you!" Scarlet screamed at us as we got further and further from them.

"Stop!" Manfredi said, making us all halt in our tracks.

"What is it?! We need to get away from your crazy girlfriend's sister!" I said. He looked back at their cave as he sat on the icy snow.

"We need to get that talismen from Scarlet."

"What? Why do we need that..."

"We just do. I feel something bad is gonna happen if we don't."

_Normal POV:_

Skipper woke up slowly, a bright light filling his eyes as he does so. When he adjusted, he craned his head to look out the bunk, finding a sleeping Chris, Penny and Marlene. Try as he could, he could barely move his flipper to touch Marlene's familiar, smooth fur.

_"Ma...Mar...Marlene..."_ he breathed out. No response came from any of them. He tried again, this time his flipper moving very slowly towards Marlene._ "Mar...lene..."_

He passed out yet again, but his flipper managed to complete its task, now resting next to her head, touching it just enough for her to notice. She opened her eyes and looked at his flipper.

"Skip...per? Skipper?" she asked, the dried tears on her face matting her fur. "Oh, I wish you get better soon." She gets no response, so she kissed him on his forehead and held onto his flipper, drifting back into her sadness-induced sleep.

_[3 Days, 22 Hours since incident - 0216 hours New York Time]_

"Whoa, this thing is massive!" Ernie commented as we store down Straight-Shot Chasm. It looked about ten feet in diameter and deep as heck. All you could see down below was darkness, darkness and of course, darkness. "ECHO!"

I regurgitated a huge glowstick, activated it and threw it down the chasm. After a minute or so, we lost track of the glowstick. There wasn't even the sound if it hitting the bottom. No splash, nothing.

"Are you sure this is completely safe?" I asked Manfredi, who seemed very eager to jump already. Johnson also looked ready to do some free-falling.

"Of course it is. Skipper, Johnson and I have jumped down this chasm countless times just for the adrenaline rush, and we haven't gotten hurt yet from doing so," Manfredi replied confidently. "Oh, one more thing to note. When you see the lake, do a cannonball, unless you want to get serious swelling from a belly-flop."

With that, the two of them jumped, shouting a battle cry as they did so. "Wow, these guys are total daredevils, aren't they?" I asked. "Well, here goes nothing. Fudge, I hate doing this kind of shiz."

I then jumped, followed by Nick, Hans, Ernie, Private and Rico.

"AAAHHH! THIS...IS...FRIKING...CRAZZZYYY!" I yelled as we all got into a Spread-Eagle skydiving position to slow us down as much as we could. The last thing we need is for someone to go too fast and hit the lake bed, if it is even there.

The feeling of falling down this chasm was almost unexplainable. It gave me mixed emotions: fear, excitement, freedom and many others that words couldn't correctly convey. The only word that is close enough to summarise these feelings would be...

_**Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.**_

(A/N: That word has a meaning, but I just use it here because it's an awesome word. Also, people use this word when they have nothing to say)

As we fell for a few seconds or so, we could see Manfredi and Johnson doing some sick tricks below us. Then, the scene changed from a rocky tube to a huge, and I mean HUGE, cavern, with the promised lake below us. We all changed to a cannonball position as we made gigantic splashes in the warm lake water.

"Let's do that again!" said Hans as we resurfaced. I looked around to count the heads and found that one was missing.

"Hey, did anybody see Ernie?" I asked. We all looked around to try and find him but the dark waters made it difficult. Suddenly, something jumped me.

"GOTCHA!" a voice yelled. I resurfaced again to find an amused Ernie.

"ERNIE! Wajafa do you think you were doing?!" I yelled at him.

"What? It was funny," he protested, wearing an innocent smirk on his face.

"Wajafa?" asked Private. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, that's just my censored version of what the fu..." my sentence was cut short when Johnson cut in.

"Ok, we get it! We don't need to hear that last bit," he requested. I nodded and we all swam for the nearby shore. We took a look around to see a pretty amazing sight. The floors and walls were made of ice, until we get to an area just past where we are. There, a Mayan-like temple stood on a small area of just rock. The walls around that area was pure ice. In other words...

_The ice walls ended where the floor started around the temple._

We all then climbed down a few feet to where the temple was and started to head over to those very ice walls. "Rico, do you have anything in there that can help us check how old the ice is?" I asked as we approached the wall.

He regurgitated some injection-like thing and passed it to me. There was a meter on one end that seems to calculate in years. "Thanks."

I went over to the wall and poked the ice wall with that...uh...thing and slowly, numbers started to rise in the meter. I waited for it to give us the final result but it seemed to be going nonstop. It was just rising and rising so fast without slowing down that I thought we might have broke the thing.

"Holy salmon!" I said when I saw the final reading. "This ice is 65 billion years old! Wajafa! That's insane!"

"Yes, the time of the dinosaurs," said Manfredi. "Right after they were exterminated by that asteroid, the first amount of ice formed right here. A few hundred years later, some Mayans found this and built this temple for a chunk of ice that actually contained the burning fires of that asteroid's impact: the Frost Fire Gem. It is one of the most sacred thing that resides here in Antarctica. The Talismen wasn't discovered until the Dark Ages started."

"That's cool," commented Ernie. I nodded over to Rico and he regurgitated an ice pickaxe, since I didn't carry any.

"Now that we've got the facts, let's start mining!" I said.

_A/N: Ok, I just made a Minecraft reference at the end there, but well, I am great at that game so who cares. I will be using the Frost Fire Gem later in the series. If you want spoilers, very great ones, then you can check me out on DeviantART as Joshpro8423. R&R!_


	12. Chapter 11

_A/N: One thing to know; new characters are making a swift appearance here! They make their official entry into the story when we make it to part 6 and beyond. Now, I thank the reviewers and if you have the time, check out my DeviantART for spoilers and drawings I made of my stories; mostly this series. Enjoy!_

**Chapter 11:**

_A Penguin, A Fox, A Heart_

_[3 Days, 23 Hours since incident - 0349 hours New York Time]_

Nightfall came, signaling the time to begin our plan of retrieving that Talismen. I didn't really know why he was suddenly so interested in it, even though that was the reason for him losing his leg.

Johnson seemed to be in another world. He couldn't recall what had happened before and no matter how hard I tried, no memory of the last 24 hours returned to him. It must have been that darn Scarlet's whatever-it-is.

I guess Hans was right. We shouldn't have trusted them. We thought he was crazy when he said that they were the infamous Chinstrap Sisters, but now we know that it was true.

"Manfredi, stay here," I started. "Without one leg, you might not be able to retreat fast enough if they find out."

He nodded in understanding. I called out to Johnson and we readied ourselves to infiltrate their cave again. We decided to sneak in through one of its many sub-entrances instead of taking the main entrance. Their home was further and deeper than just near the entrance where they kept their stuff in, so we had a long ways to go.

Slowly and steadily, we crept down the path that served as their back entrance. It's a good thing we learned quite a bit about them, since Jade was Manfredi's girl.

I held a flipper up to halt Johnson as I peeked down the corner. It was their supposed living room: a giant cavity lit with the burning magma that resided in this amazing cave. We needed to get across and into the sub-cavity that served as Scarlet's room. The fact that we couldn't see any sign of them scared me.

A tap on the shoulder nearly made me jump out of my feathers. I turned around to find Manfredi. _"What are you doing here?! I told you to stay behind soldier!"_ I asked as he clearly disobeyed my order to stay behind.

_"I know this place better than you, so I need to come along," _he explained. _"Besides, I'm the best when it comes to one-legged racing, remember?"_

I quietly sighed. _"Fine, but keep it down and keep up."_ We proceeded to get across, Manfredi hopping quietly behind us. I would have actually burst into laughter at the sight of what he was doing if we weren't where we are now.

_"Looking for something?"_ a taunting voice said, echoing around the vast cavern. We turned in surprise to find Scarlet holding up the Talismen. "You want it, come get it," she continued with an evil smirk. I barely noticed that her brown eyes were replaced with a bright red as she put the talismen back around her neck.

"Get that talismen!" yelled Manfredi before he started for her at speeds that would look impossible with one leg. He then pounced at her but she just dodges it. He rolls to a standing position and starts for her again. Johnson and I quickly got into the fight as well, hoping that would make it easier to try and snatch the talismen.

"Ha, petty fools," she said while she continued dodging our attacks with ease. "You are no match for me anymore!" She then grabbed Johnson by his flipper before flipping and throwing him at me.

"And now it's just you and me, chosen one." She pulled out a small dagger that looked almost ancient. It had all kinds of markings engraved on its blade, and despite the wood of the handle looking quite old; the dagger itself was gleaming, reflecting light off the magma, like she just got that a day ago or something. She held it up threateningly and lunged at Manfredi, pinning him down with her weight.

She held the dagger up with both flippers before diving it straight down towards Manfredi's head. He quickly blocked the attack with his flippers, preventing her from plunging it into his face.

Scarlet used all her strength as she tried to make the dagger's blade meet with his skull while Manfredi kept trying to prevent that. I watched in horror as the knife progressively got closer to him.

I tried to push the now-unconscious Johnson off, but for some reason I couldn't. It was like he suddenly became a hundred tons but didn't crush me like it was so.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" echoed an ear-piercing scream. I jerked my head towards the battle scene to find that Scarlet had managed to stab him in his right eye.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" I yelled, adding to the noise of the screaming. This was it. It was over. Nothing can save us now. Dang, why am I such a pessimist?

**SMACK!**

**THUD!**

I looked backed at the scene. Manfredi's unconscious from the pain and bleeding again. Scarlet was on the floor, knife still in her flippers, unconscious. A figure loomed in front of Manfredi carrying a reddish book-like item. It looked like...a sheep.

He turned to my direction and said some phases, where in turn Johnson slid off me. He then quickly took a fluff of his fleece and put it over Manfredi's eye before he picked him up by his shoulders. "Get your friend there and come with me," he said, extending a paw to me.

Without any other word, I grabbed Johnson's flipper and threw it over my shoulder. I hobbled over to the mysterious sheep and he grabbed my flipper. "Pronto na contagem de dois, transporte-nos para casa, um, dois!" (Translation: Ready on the count of two, transport us home, one, two!)

Suddenly, we were engulfed in a bright, yellowish light. When it disappeared, we were in the cave anymore. Instead, we were in some sort of massive library.

The sheep then put Manfredi down, his flipper dropping to the side and revealing a brilliant and vibrant-looking red crystal. _"He got the crystal,"_ the sheep mumbled to himself.

"Dê-me o poder da luz, e salvar essa vida para outra luta," she said as he placed his paws over Manfredi's bleeding eye. The same bright, yellow light that appeared on Manfredi's leg and around us a few moments ago manifested from under his paws. When it disappeared, he took away his paws to reveal an eye that was no longer bleeding, but was healed and clouded.

(Translation of the latest phrase: Give me the power of the light, and save this life for another fight.)

"I'm terribly sorry about your friend here," he said as he turned and faced me. "But you are all in safe hands now. I can't restore vision to his right eye, but it's better than nothing."

"Who are you?" I asked him curiously. I could now see that he wore some spectacles and had cocoa brown eyes.

"The name's Daniel Ekidana Tuft, but I'd prefer it if you just call me Bagel."

_Normal POV:_

"I guess this would be enough," I said as we got a big chunk of ice from the ice wall. It felt colder than usual, which was weird for ice, since it's supposed to stay constant at zero degrees Celsius. Huh, gotta love these Kowalski moments.

Rico regurgitated an ice bag and we put the chunk of ice in it. "We should start heading back to the boat," I said. "Cause I seem to have left the home button and the book there."

"Alright then," replied Manfredi. "Follow me. The way out is this way," he added before we followed him up a rocky ledge the spiraled itself along the cave's giant walls.

_[4 Days, 14 hours since incident - 1837 hours New York Time]_

Trudging through the thick snow, he couldn't help but still feel cold, despite having thick fur and being covered in a big hooded shroud and his favourite white scarf he got from his step-sister a few birthdays ago. She wore similar clothing, but only for protecting her identity.

They were doing their usual rounds around the perimeter of their village to protect it from any predators. It was their duty; their job. In simpler terms, they kept peace in their village.

He glanced over his shoulder to find that his step-sister has stopped dead in her tracks. "Cadet," he started with a concerned voice. "What's wrong?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she pointed somewhere beyond where they were. He turned to look and could make out two figures in the distance. The figures were headed for the entrance of the Imperial Caverns; the caves that held the sacred Temple of The Frost Fire Gem.

"What about them?" he asked, confused by her observation.

She tilted the hood of her cloak so her emerald green eyes were noticeable in the darkness of it. "They may want to steal the Gem," she said.

He just waved it off. "I bet they're just more of those adventure junkies from last week. Forget them."

"Yes, but the cases of other animals trying to steal the gem have increased since a month ago. We need to make sure they aren't one of them," she explained.

"Fine. Just one check, and I get extra fish if I was right," he said before they headed to where the figures were headed.

_Chinstrap POV:_

"That darn Bagel. I swear I will zap him to the next century when I see him!" griped Scarlet. They looked down a cave entrance to find a certain group of animals making their way up the rocky path.

"Ah, here they are. They seemed to have figured out the riddle, but no matter. They can't save them if they can't get to them."

She then raised her flippers in the air before chanting a spell. "Tenebrae factae sunt, quae vires colligere, et hoc faciemus virtutem tremuere!" (Latin Translation: Dark forces are what we are made to assemble, and with this force we will make the Earth tremble!)

_Normal POV:_

"Dang...how much...further?" I asked as we continued hiking up the last stretch of the rocky path. It had been more than half a day, and already I felt like dying myself.

"Just a few more Josh," replied Manfredi, who was hiking up like we had just started hiking. He turned around to see many of us were lagging behind; Johnson right behind him then came me and the rest. "You guys never hiked this long before I suppose."

"Actually, we did once," Ernie replied from the center of the line. "It's just we haven't done this in a while."

_"Tenebrae factae sunt, quae vires colligere, et hoc faciemus virtutem tremuere!"_ a female voice suddenly echoed about the caves. We stopped in our tracks before noticing it was Scarlet's voice.

"It seems that they're here," noted Johnson. Then, we felt the ground start shaking ever so slightly. As more time passed, it got even more violent.

"They used a spell!" Manfredi noticed as the trembling got to the point where it could make us lose our balance. "RUN FOR THE ENTRANCE!" he yelled.

Immediately after hearing his command, we all made a run for the entrance, which was just a few meters from where we were. The trembling then got to a point where the rocky path started crumbling behind us.

"COME ON! Just a little m..." Manfredi's sentence was cut short when the path crumbled right before us, making a huge gap between us and the entrance. "Son of a gun!" he cursed. "We need to jump!"

"What! Is it even possible to make that?!" said Nick in a very pessimistic tone. Before Manfredi could answer, I went for it.

"YOLO MODE!" I yelled as I made the huge jump, doing a front flip to propel myself further. I barely caught the edge but regained my center of gravity, enough to pull myself up. "Come on guys! I'll catch you!" I said, holding out my flippers.

"You heard him! Go!" he said. The path behind them was almost gone, so they had to hurry. Manfredi went for the jump first. Luckily, I managed to grab his flipper, but his weight was sorta holding me down.

I looked down to see the cause of the problem: everyone was hanging on to each other's leg. I looked towards the path to see that it was completely gone. No wonder they all jumped at once.

"Aah! Come on!" I said as tried my best to pull them all up. I was slowly slipping towards the edge and I was running out of floor and strength.

Then, my worst fears came true. I slipped off the edge and we plummeted down. I caught the edge with my free flipper before we could fall any further. I could swear their combined weight could rip my flipper off at any moment.

Again, because of their weight, I continued slipping. "Oh, come on! You kidding me!" I yelled in frustration as my grip gave way. I closed my eyes as I didn't want to see how I or my friends would die.

Out of the blue, our free-fall halted and I felt something feathery around my flipper. "What the?" I looked up to see a hooded figure above me. The shadow created by the hood made it difficult to see my saviour's face, but I could make out two features: a beak and emerald green eyes.

Slowly but surely, the figure managed to pull me back up onto the entrance floor. I could see that there was a second hooded figure assisting in pulling us up, thus explaining how the first figure managed our weight. I quickly pulled Manfredi up onto the entrance floor, where he then proceeded to pull the rest up.

"Who are you?" I asked the figure. It opened its beak to respond, but a scream prevented that. The second hooded figure then ran out before running back to the first figure. Through the shadow of the second figure's hood, I could barely see a furry snout.

"The village is under attack! We need to go Cadet!" the figure said, its voice sounding male. He had a big bushy tail poking out from behind the hooded cloak, so he was obviously a mammal.

The first figure then looked back at me before running off to follow the male figure. But, that figure's cloak got caught on something and it was pulled off, revealing a penguin. It had spiking feathers on both sides of its head and was shorter than me.

I noticed the figure was a female as she turned around to grab her cloak back. I couldn't see many details of her appearance through the darkness of the Antarctic night, but even so, the only thing I kept seeing were her emerald green eyes. She quickly put the shroud back on and went on her way with the other figure.

"Wait!" I said as I noticed something that the female penguin left behind. I picked it up looked out the cave. "You forgot this!" I yelled out, but they were nowhere in sight.

I then looked at the object that was left behind; it was a shell with a brown string attached to it, making it look like a necklace. "Who was she?" I asked myself, examining the necklace.

"Josh! I need help here!" Manfredi called out to me, bringing me back to reality. I quickly turned around after swallowing the shell necklace and started for them.

"I'm coming!" I said as I picked up my pace.

_A/N: Ooh! If you all have seen the spoilers I have posted both on my facebook and on DeviantART, then it may be easier to guess who these new characters are! They will be making their full appearance in part six and they are going to matter a lot there! Also, with this posted, we've only got two more chapters till we conclude this! So, till then, R&R!_


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

_Two Black Magic Chinstraps_

"Ally-up!" said Ernie as he helped us pull Johnson up. "That was pretty interesting," he commented.

"Yep," Nick simply said, still traumatised after cheating death.

"Who was that Josh?" Manfredi suddenly asked as we all took a breather on the snow. "Who saved us?"

I looked at him blankly. "I don't know, but I saw that it was a penguin. A female penguin." I looked back at the entrance like I was expecting those figures to be standing there listening to us. "And there was another guy; a mammal. I couldn't see his face but I know it's a mammal."

"A mammal?" said Manfredi. "Whitish fur?" he asked further.

"Grayish I think."

"Probably an Antarctic wolf or something," he assured as he stood up and turned all his attention to us. "Well, we should get going. We will need that home button to get back quickly. We've got less than a day to fix this mess, so we better not screw this up."

I then stood up myself. "He's right. We have one shot at this, so we have to make this count." I nodded once at him. "Now let's go and get that home button."

_[4 Days, 15 Hours since incident - 1952 New York Time]_

"I'm not even going to ask about why you named yourself after a piece of fried bread," I said to the sheep named Bagel. He just waved it off.

"Don't then," he assured. "Now, what's your name sir?"

"Skipper. Just call me Skipper," I replied smugly. I then went over to Johnson and checked him for any injuries.

"Here, let me help you wake him up." He then walked over to him, placing a paw on his forehead. He muttered some words and just like that, Johnson started to stir.

_"Uhhh...I don't feel so good,"_ he mumbled. Without any warning, I gave him one big bro-hug.

"Good to have you back Johnson," I said coolly, patting his back like a father would to his son. I retracted from the hug and let him adjust to the place.

"Where in the world are we?" asked Johnson, rubbing his head in confusion. "And who in Denmark is he?" he added, pointing at Bagel.

"Name's Bagel dude. Oh, and I don't come from Denmark."

Then, Manfredi started stirring as well. He sat up and rubbed his head, his faced screwed up in slight pain. "Can anyone tell me what happened?"

"You did it man," said Bagel as he approached him. He grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him with each syllable, "You got the crystal," he continued.

Manfredi visibly sighed. "That's good."

I glanced between the two as confused as ever. "Will someone explain to me what's going on here?! What crystal?! And did what?!" I cussed. Add this to the book about the moments in my life where everyone else besides me knows what's going on.

"Oh, right. You and that dude over there don't know what's happening. Uh..." He put a paw under his chin in a thinking fashion. "Well, I was told that you three were in great danger and that you needed my help."

He looked over to Manfredi. "I was also told that you were given some knowledge about the talismen, am I right?" Manfredi nodded confidently. "And you know what you must do with this right?"

Bagel then put the red gem in his flippers, where he automatically started examining it. "Yes," he replied.

"Alrighty then. Come with me. I'll get you something for your leg as well as your eye. As for you two, you want anything to eat?" he simply said without answering any of my questions at all. "Don't worry. I'll answer them over some food. You'll have your answers as well as an explanation."

"Did you just?" I asked.

"Yes, yes I did," he responded, to my surprise. "I promise you all I'll explain everything you need to know. Come, follow me." He turned to lead us somewhere, but I grabbed his arm before he started to.

"Can you at least tell me who told you this?" I requested, almost sounding desperate. He let out a small latest laugh.

"Simple," he assured. "Jade told me."

_Third Person POV:_

Skipper and Kowalski were wrenching in pain as they laid in the bunks. The kids all hid in their room, for fear they would see them die right there and then.

Ash and Gem were busy looking for some morphine to see if it would ease the pains while Liv and Marlene were trying to keep them down to prevent them from hurting themselves.

"Keep them still!" Ash said as she injected some morphine into Skipper and Kowalski's flippers. They soon calmed down, to everyone's relief.

Ash took a peek at the life-support machines that had been keeping them alive for the past few days. Heart rates' low, blood pressures' low, everything was at the point where it almost looked hopeless.

Marlene was visibly crying on Liv's shoulder while Doris looked at Kowalski sadly through the portholes of the HQ along with Kate and Hazel. No one said anything else at this point. They had never seen two of the mentally and physically strongest penguins in the team look so weak before.

_They all knew that their time was running out fast._

_They all knew the unspeakable was getting nearer._

_They knew that the rest needed to hurry and get that cure._

But through all those pessimistic thoughts that revolved around the room like signals from radio stations,

_They also knew that they shouldn't give up hope._

_They knew they still had one last fighting chance._

_They knew there was still some hope left._

_**Because hope is neither not lost nor found; it is made and used.**_

_[4 Days, 18 Hours since incident - 2206 hours New York Time]_

For hours we trudged through the white of the vast tundra, but there was almost no sign of the boat we came from anywhere. We were slowly running out of time and we were nowhere near to finding the boat. That home button is the only thing that can help us now.

_Or that book._

"Come on! Fish sticks!" I said, feeling frustrated as we continued looking for the metal and wood trawler sprawled across the eternal white. The situation was starting to get hopeless, fast.

"How much time left?" asked Private as he trailed behind me. I regurgitated the watch again then swallowed it back up.

"It's 10:08pm right now," I replied.

Manfredi looked behind him as he led the group. "Hey Hans," he started, catching Hans' attention. "Can you still fly, or are your wings really out of commission?"

Hans shook his head. "Can't do that anymore. It healed, that's for sure, but these puncture scars make it impossible for me to get enough lift to even fly up a few feet," he replied.

"Blast. We need that remote to get home and make this darn cure!" he said. He angrily kicked some snow forward in an attempt to vent out his frustration. "Why can't anything go right!"

_"Oh, I so agree with you,"_ loomed a voice from behind us. Every one of us turned to see the last penguins we wanted to see right now.

_The Chinstrap Sisters._

"You," said Manfredi, scrunching his face into one beast-looking game face.

"You yourself," taunted the Chinstrap with red eyes and the talismen around her neck. We guessed her to be Scarlet Seviera. "It's a shame you can't find your boat. You were really close, really. But...I guess your fellow subordinates are going to die today."

"That's not gonna happen," I protested. "Because we aren't keen on giving up now."

She smiled an evil grin. "Aw, how cute," she said in disgust and sarcasm. "But killing them is only a side task. You know what I really want...chosen one."

"Stop calling me that! You know very well that I'm not him," Manfredi protested. "Besides, I look nothing like him."

"Don't act the fool! You know you are! Admit it!" she yelled at Manfredi. I could see that the other sister, Jade Seviera, was just standing there with what looked like a fake angry scowl.

Manfredi just laughed at that. "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that," he returned, making her scrunch her face in anger. I could already see that this was not gonna end well.

"Ok, how about this? Give me the ruby and I will spare your lives as well as those two _buffoons_ back at your precious zoo," he offered with an apparent tone of dishonesty.

Then, Manfredi snapped. "Even if I give it to you, your still going to destroy the world!" he shot back in anger. "And I am NOT going to be the cause of that!"

With that, Manfredi tackled Scarlet. We jumped in as we saw them spar against each other using various fighting techniques.

"Whoa!" I said as I dodged a beam of dark energy fly in my direction. This continued for a good while, each time dodging the many dark energy beams being shot at us by Scarlet.

Through everything, I couldn't help but notice that Jade never went in and fight with Manfredi. She fought everyone else, but when they met, they would always turn around and fight someone else.

Suddenly, a big explosion caused us all to fly in different directions. We looked towards the source to find a familiar face.

"Missed me?" said Bagel, who was the cause of the explosion. He then faced Scarlet, who glared at him. "It isn't fair that only you have magic, so let's even those odds, shall we?"

He then shot out a yellowish beam of light at her, which she automatically dodged. The two exchanged beams of light and dark as we continued trying to tackle her.

A beam of darkness managed to nail Manfredi on his peg leg and dislodge it, causing him to stumble over and fall into the snow. "Ha! You missed!" he taunted. He quickly recovered and replaced his peg leg before attempting to attack Scarlet again.

"Uh, this is getting old," groused Bagel as he dodged multiple shots from Scarlet. "Everyone! Gather!"

Without asking why, we all quickly gathered around him. I quickly caught on to what he was planning to do, so I told everyone to put a flipper, paw or wing on each other just he said the exact same thing.

Then, just as suspected, he recited the transportation spell, like from the book he gave me, in Portuguese. "Oh no you don't!" yelled Scarlet. She then made a ball of dark energy and threw it at us, where it hit Bagel, knocking him out. We were still in formation and didn't know what to do as she prepared another energy ball.

_Then, an idea came to me._

"Guys! Get a hold of Bagel! I think I remember that spell we used before!" I said. Everyone then got a hold on Bagel's fleece before I said, "Ready on the count of two, transport us to Central Park Zoo!"

Then, Private looked at me. "But that's not gonna..."

_**BOOM!**_

Scarlet looked up at the mess she created after throwing the giant energy ball, only to find nothing but an icy crater. "What! No!" she yelled angrily. As suddenly as she started, she calmed at the sight of something in the snow. A big smirk crept up her face as she picked it up.

"You ain't seen the last of the Chinstrap Sisters!" she yelled at the sky. "You WILL see us again!" Then, an evil cackle escaped her beak.

_[4 Days, 19 Hours since incident - 2326 hours New York Time/Six hours left till fifth sunrise]_

Ash and Gem had gone through so much morphine to lessen the pain the two were feeling that they had a very, very short supply left. They would inject enough to last an hour, but for some reason wears off after only fifteen minutes.

Almost everyone who really cared a lot about Skipper and Kowalski were in the HQ, all grieving on this great tragedy. Marlene, Liv, Doris, Hazel, their kids. Heck, even Julien was there to see them for what might be the last time they will.

_**"AAAHHH!"**_ Everyone in the HQ was startled when they heard that. It was soon followed by both splashing and thuds above them. When Doris, Hazel and Kate went to check who it was, they were more than happy to see who it was.

"Guys! You're back!" they announced.

_"Ugh...I think I sprained my face,"_ Ernie said as he picked himself up from the concrete ice floe he had face planted onto. Everyone, except Ernie, Rico and Johnson, had landed in the penguins' pool.

Doris and Hazel then quickly brought us up onto the concrete ice floe, where Bagel began to stir. _"Ugh...what hap...where are we?"_ was the first things he said.

"Home my friend," I replied as I put a flipper on his shoulder. "We're back in Central Park Zoo."

We all then stood up and shook off the water droplets. Bagel practically made a monsoon when he shook out the water in his fleece, making us all wet again.

"Hehe, sorry," he apologised.

"Have you guys got the cure yet?" asked Hazel and Doris, reminding us that they had been there all along. We simply nodded.

"I will need a place to brew this cure, like a lab or..."

"Kowalski has a lab!" Doris interjected before Bagel could finish his sentence. "It's down in the HQ!"

He nodded. "All right then. Manfredi, I will need you to assist me on this," he requested. Manfredi nodded back in response. "Good. Go get the ingredients and the riddle while I go and prepare the lab for the brew."

He turned to me and eyed me suspiciously. Before I could suspect anything, he asked, "How much time do we left Josh?"

I turned towards the zoo's clock tower and replied, "We've only got less than six hours left before the sun rises."

"Then we better get this cure on the road."

_A/N: Yeah, no author's note up front. I decided to just put it at the bottom only as it is starting to get tedious. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I included many hint for part 6 which is a continuation of this madness, so yeah, it is going to be crazy. I still got until installment 10 so don't think this is gonna end so soon. The series will still live on! So, thanks to the reviewers and your support so far! Next chapter is the final one, with one of the most craziest and anger-inducing cliffhanger you can get. R&R!_


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:**

_Enlightening The Final Bond_

_[Half an hour till fifth sunrise - 0604 hours New York Time]_

We waited for hours while Bagel and Manfredi worked on the cure. For a potion of some sort, it seemed to take forever to make. We all hoped and prayed that it would be done before it's too late.

For the past few hours, around five and a half to be exact, we had nothing to do but pace back and forth, have mini-conversations about our worries or help solve the last part of the riddle. There were many bonds we could think of, one of the most common ones were love, friendship and trust. That part was easy. The hard part was:

_How do we prove it?_

The metal door opened once again, averting all our attention to Manfredi, who came out frequently to tell us the progress of the cure. Even for this relatively short period of time, we already got used to him saying that it was almost done and him having either a frown or a poker face.

This time however, there was a slight smile on his face. Upon seeing that slight change of expression, we hoped for the best.

"Guys," he started, his tone apparent with the sign of achievement. "We did it. It's finished."

We all practically cheered for joy upon hearing this. That was when Bagel came out the lab carrying two smoking mugs of some liquid. Ironically, one of them was Skipper's favourite metal coffee mug, which was now Kowalski's. The other was the coffee mug Nick and I got him as a farewell gift the first time we came here.

"Ok," Bagel started with an assuring tone. "They just need to drink this and then we have to prove the bond. If we do this all right, they should be cured."

"How do we know if it works?" asked Private, sounding concerned that it wouldn't. Bagel just shrugged.

"I have no idea," he said. "There was only one other person I know who was cursed by this before, and he was Zenocravatious himself. No one has ever survived this curse, but if this works, they will be the first," he explained, eyeing the two.

Private audibly gulped as Bagel went over to the two. He chanted some spell and they cracked open their eyes very slightly. Skipper then mumbled something that sounded like 'Bagel' in a questioning tone.

"You two have to drink this," he said. Skipper and Kowalski nodded slowly before he slowly poured the liquid into their beaks, starting with Skipper. "Ok, now we need to prove the bond."

"Which one?" I asked since we still didn't know exactly what bond it wanted us to prove. "We traced it down to three possible ones, so..."

"Prove them all," Bagel interjected. "One of them should work."

I nodded before turning to Marlene. "Let's prove the bond of love first. That's relatively simple enough," I suggested. "Get Doris in here too."

Rico and Gem then went off to bring Doris in through a secret passage that Skipper told us not to tell anyone its location about. "Uh, how do you prove the bond of love?" asked Marlene. I looked at her like the answer was plastered on her face.

"Three words," I said. "True. Love's. Kiss." Just as I said that, Doris managed to enter. Right on time too. I asked her if she knew how to prove the bond of love and she nodded. Then, they both stood in front of the two and gave them the most passionate kiss they have ever given them.

As they did so, a small sparkle of light appeared around Skipper and Kowalski's bodies like they were covered in glitter. Then it just faded away as soon as the two females broke from the kiss.

"It seems this bond is not the one," inferred Bagel. "Try friendship and trust."

"Uh, how do we prove them?" Nick asked.

"Try reminiscing a time when those bonds shone through. In other words, find a time when you showed your friendship or trust in them," Bagel explained.

We then nodded before telling them the two times where we had shone great friendship and trust: the time where we saved them from almost getting killed by mind-hacked Hobokeners and the time where they trusted our decision of helping the Hobokeners repent.

Each time we finished telling them that moment in time, that same, slight sparkle of light will appear, but like before, they disappeared as soon as we finished.

"What! How can this be! What did we miss out!" Manfredi said when he saw that they still looked as bad as ever after proving all three bonds. "We got the blood, the ice and the dolphin tears! We even proved the bond! What did we..."

He quickly snatched the paper from Bagel's paws and read the riddle again. "No! We forgot the first one!" he practically screamed out.

"Which one?!" I asked, also realizing our mistake. He then read:

_The first is often seen at play,_

_It's usually when you start the day._

Everyone's heart dropped when we heard it. We instinctively looked at the clock above Kowalski's lab door to find that we only had ten minutes to sunrise left. Ten minutes to figure out the last ingredient and to use it. Ten minutes before_ 'it'_ happens.

"Anyone have any ideas on what this is?! Anyone?!" asked Manfredi in a desperate tone. We were all literally panicking on the inside as we searched our minds for what it might be.

_Nothing came up._

A frail voice then caused all of us to stop and look at the two. A frail voice that was of Skipper's. _"It's...ok guys..."_ he said. _"It doesn't...matter now..."_

Then, Kowalski continued for him, forcing tears out from our eyes. _"What matters is...that you...tried..."_

The HQ was practically starting to flood with the amount of tears flowing from every single person in the room. There was not a dry eye at this moment.

_"Just...leave it..."_ continued Skipper. _"We will always remember...what you all did...for us. We will always be...in every one of you. We will always be...family."_

They both then looked slowly up to the fishbowl entrance before Kowalski said_, "The last thing...you can help us do...is to see the last sunrise...before we go."_

We all hesitated for a moment at their request before agreeing to it. Collectively, we helped the two up onto the concrete ice floe. Rico then set up two chairs - the ones they use to sunbathe - for them to lie in.

_"Thank you..."_ they said as we all watched the sun break the edge of the horizon, the orange beams of light slowly getting nearer to where we all stood. We all gave them one big group hug, crying landfills as we did so.

They then called for Doris and Marlene to be with them. The two then sat by their side as they both recited a final message to them.

_"Marlene,"_ Skipper started.

_"Doris,"_ started Kowalski.

Then they both said in a slight sing-songy tone. _"I...will love you...forever...forever and always...please...just remember...even if I'm not...there...I'll always...love you...forever...and al...ways..."_

One final breath escaped their beaks as they said the final word of their message.

_Their final goodbye._

_"We'll l-love you f-forever and always too,"_ the two females said as they cried on their lifeless bodies. We all broke down into tears as the sun passed us all, covering everyone in its orange glow.

_"We'll a-always be your f-family. Always," _I stuttered out in between sobs. It was over. They're gone, and there's nothing we can do about it anymore.

_All we could think to do was cry._

_Cry until we could cry no more._

_None of us were the opposite of sad._

_None of us would be able to think of them and not feel remorse._

_We just felt like…couldn't do anything anymore._

Then, I heard a sparkle. I immediately stopped and took a glance at them. "Guys! Look!" I said when I noticed that the same sparkles of light engulfing the two. Everyone moved aside, where in turn the two penguins started rising up into the air.

"What's happening?!" asked a tear-riddled Marlene. The two kept floating higher and higher until they were a few feet off the ground. Then, the aura around them grew in brightness, getting brighter and brighter by the second.

We shielded our eyes as the glow intensified to around the brightness of the sun itself. Then, the light just disappeared and they dropped down into the pool.

We didn't dare move. We tried to see from where we all stood what happened to them, when something grabbed the edge of the concrete ice floe. _Something small. Something wet. Something black._

_And that something was a flipper._

Then three more flippers grabbed the edge of the floe, and they pulled up two figures.

"Kowalski! Skipper! You're alive!" I blurted out first. We all then shrouded the two in another giant group hug just when they stood up. The sadness we all felt was quickly overshadowed with extreme joy.

_They were alive._

"Ok ok! We still need to breath here you know!" Skipper said in an exhausted voice. We quickly broke from the hug where we all then asked Bagel what made it work.

"The sunlight," he said, looking upon the great big ball of light in the sky. "Sunlight was the last ingredient! People usually play in the morning, and sunlight is only found during the day!"

He then thought a bit more. "And by agreeing to let them see the sunrise even though we want them to live proves the bonds of love, friendship and trust!"

"You mean, we love them enough to trust their decision as friends?" Ernie asked.

"Not as friends," Private corrected. "Family. Family has our greatest friends."

"The bond of family," I said when I realised that the three bonds we came up with were sub-categories of the same bond. "We proved the bond of family."

We all then jumped for joy as we one-by-one hugged the two again. When we were done, we let Manfredi and Johnson talk to them for a while.

"Manfredi and Johnson," Skipper started; Kowalski standing next to him. "Come here you two!" He then grabbed both of them into a four-way bro hug. "I am so proud of you two today. You have really proved to me that you are willing to do anything for the ones you can call family."

"It was nothing Skipper," Manfredi replied in a sarcastic tone. "It's all in a day's work for a brother of mine."

They then broke from the hug, leaving elated faces on all of them. "Speaking of a day's work, do you still have that crystal Bagel asked you to protect?" asked Skipper, remembering the flashback nightmares he had been getting when he was cursed. Manfredi nodded as he took off his peg leg.

"Right he..." His face changed to shock and disbelief as his flipper explored his hollow peg leg. "What! Where is it?!" he yelled, turning his peg leg upside down.

"Where is what?" asked Hans. Manfredi then looked at him with a dire expression.

"The Blood Ruby! It's missing!"

_[Ten minutes after fifth sunrise - 0645 hours New York Time]_

They stood before Straight-Shot Chasm before making their way down. They finally had the most important piece they needed for their mission to be a success, so now they just needed one last piece of the puzzle; the one to aid them in their mission.

_The Frost Fire Gem._

Landing in the lake, they swam towards the temple and looked devilishly at it. A glow of red emitted from the brown item hanging around a red-eyed figure's neck as they neared the structure.

"Our plan is about to prevail sis," said the red-eyed figure with a glint of evil in her voice. "With this talismen complete, we can now get the last thing on our shopping list."

She pointed the brown object at the temple's rocky doors, causing a red beam of light to shine upon them. The doors then opened with a great rumble as they rubbed against the temple's floors.

_"Nothing can stop us now."_

_A/N: Yes! It is finally done! We have completed part 5 of the LWTPS! It's a sad thing, but to overcome that, part 6 will be coming soon! The part where we will see some new characters, places, adventure and even the greatest coincidence or destiny you can ever imagine in this series. I may add an epilogue or I could just continue from part 6. SO, I'll see you all soon in part 6! R&R!_

_P.S. I made a new bond yes. I know that you all may not have expected it, and neither did I honestly. I changed the bond to this at the last minute and it makes a lot of sense. Also, the quote in the last chapter is really made by me. PEACE!_


End file.
